★★★★★ Audrey Haylins 29.05.2023 amazon.de

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 5Fasten your seatbelt and hold tight! This is another thrilling rollercoaster of a ride from Karin Slaughter. Tense, twisty and dark, it showcases all of Slaughter’s skills, from meticulous plotting and gripping prose to a bold and diverse cast of characters: goodies, baddies, wits and outright nutters!We’re back with Andrea Oliver, two years on from where we left her in Pieces of Her and now a freshly qualified US Marshall. Andy’s first assignment is to protect a judge who’s been receiving death threats. But there’s an ulterior, and deeply personal, motive to this placement; one that Andy hopes might see her estranged, biological father, locked behind bars for good.The dual timeline segues between 1982 and the unsolved murder of 17 year-old Emily Vaughan, and present day events, as Andy and her partner Bible team up for protection duty. It quickly becomes evident that there are overlaps in the two narratives; intricate connections, echoing down the years that have cast a long shadow over the seaside town of Longbill Beach.For me there were two outstanding aspects to this story. First, Slaughter’s masterful exploitation of the dual narrative, which is so tantalizingly strung out, it really is very hard to stop reading. When the two strands do finally collide, they do so full force in a high-octane finale that leaves you reeling.Second is Slaughter’s magnificent evocation of a small-town community, where status and respect are everything, where silence can be bought and secrets and mistakes buried. And where the brutal, unsolved murder of one of their own can be conveniently forgotten.I love too that Slaughter manages to make a deeply complex plot such an easy read. As always, her writing is simple and fluid, in direct contrast to the intricate nature of the story; something that this author has turned into an art form.Although this sequel can be read as a stand-alone, I would recommend first reading Pieces of Her in order to gain an understanding of Andy’s background and her relationship with her mother. The TV show is great but diverges somewhat from the book.Thanks for reading my review. I hope you found it helpful. You can find more candid book reviews on my Amazon profile page.