Two sisters
One secret
Someone knows what they did…
Book blurb
Leigh doesn't like to talk about her sister.
About the night that tore them apart.
About what they did.
But someone else is about to.
How far will Leigh go to protect her family?
My thoughts
Two sisters who live very differently. One, Leigh, has a home with a good job as a lawyer, a daughter Maddie who lives with her father because although it would seem she has a good life she is self destructive when it comes to her relationship with her husband, Walter. Still she knows she can rely on him. The other sister, Callie, is a drug addict who lives life on the edge. Seedy motel rooms or the streets is where she lives. She holds down a job with Dr Jerry, a vet, when she can. She has a cat called Binx. They are still close in their own way.
A case comes to Leigh and with it comes a nightmare for her and her sister. A man is accused of a very violent crime. A crime that has echoes of the past. A man who both sisters know from when he was a child and they were his babysitter. It's not a time Leigh likes to remember! It's not a time her sister is able to forget!
Leigh has a very short time to become familiar with the case and get up to speed in order to pick up from were the previous lawyer left. As she discusses the case with the accused, Andrew, and his PI/advisor, Reggie, she comes to realise that Andrew knows what happened all those years ago.
This is not a story for the faint hearted as we go back to the time when Callie babysat for Andrew and how his father, Buddy, had groomed her. She was thirteen and believed she was in love. She took the abuse and violence because she thought it meant he loved her. And so it would have gone on until she grew older and he didn't want her anymore. But this one evening they fought and she realised it was a charade, worse it was a way of getting what he wanted and to record it to show to other men. Callie could not let that happen again.
Leigh felt guilty she had known about Buddy and so didn't hesitate to help that night. They never found the tapes.
Andrew knows what happened and Andrew wants Leigh to get him off the charge, to keep him out of prison whatever he does in the future. Or he will tell. Does he really know? How? Does he really have the tapes?
Leigh would loose everything, Callie would have to relive it all publicly. Leigh can't, won't let that happen but can she really stop Andrew?
Karin Slaughter tells stories that are beautifully crafted, constructed and written. This is no different it will have you totally immersed in what is happening. It is has great characters like Leigh, who takes the world on her shoulders, Dr Jerry and Walter who are both so caring even Phil but especially Callie who is vulnerable yet smart, brave and strong.
Set partly in a time when the world is in turmoil with Covid 19, partly two decades previously this is a deeply moving and incredibly tragic story.
Previously read and reviewed
I have read many of Karin Slaughter's books including all of the Grant County Series. Karin Slaughter is right up there as one of my favourite US authors of crime fiction. Here are the ones I have on my blog:
The Good Daughter | Cop Town | Pieces of Her |The Last Widow | The Silent Wife | Last Breath (Novella) | Pretty Girls
Book: Purchased
#20Booksofsummer23
This is my 13th book for the #20booksofsummer23 challenge. Having passed my anticipated 10 books this year I will finish having read 15 books.
Information
Published: HarperCollins (24 Jun. 2021) | 448 pages
Buy: Publishers links | AmazonSmileUK | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Hive UK
Author: Karin Slaughter is the author of more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar–nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls, The Good Daughter, and Pieces of Her. She is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is a #1 Netflix original series starring Toni Collette, and WILL TRENT, based on her Will Trent series, is on ABC (streaming on Hulu in the U.S., and Disney+ internationally). False Witness and The Good Daughter are in development for television. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
You can check out all things Karin Slaughter on Karen's website or follow her on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Books
Will Trent series
The Will Trent series takes place in Atlanta and features GBI special agent Will Trent, his partner Faith Mitchell, and Angie Polaski. The first two books in the series are Triptych and Fractured. Later, Sara Linton from The Grant County Series joins the series, and also appears in Undone, Broken, Fallen, Criminal, Unseen, and The Kept Woman, The Last Widow, The Silent Wife, and After That Night. There are also two short stories featuring Will Trent, Busted and Snatched.
Grant County series
Set in the fictional town of Heartsdale, Georgia, (in the fictional Grant County) the narrative takes place from the perspective of three main characters: Sara Linton, the town's pediatrician and part-time coroner; her ex-husband, Jeffrey Tolliver, who is chief of police; and his subordinate, detective Lena Adams. The series includes Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless and Beyond Reach (also called Skin Privilege).
Standalone
Short stories
No comments:
Post a Comment