• Author: Karin Slaughter
• Publisher: Arrow books / Penguin Random House UK
• Publishing year: 2015
• Number of pages: 534
• ISBN: 978-0099599449

Review:

Twenty years ago Julia disappeared, leaving behind her two younger sisters Claire and Lydia. Lydia found her escape in drugs and abuse while Claire married Paul Scott with whom she has a happy life. But to that life comes an end when, after a night out to celebrate Claire’s release from an electronic ankle bracelet, her husband is killed by a mugger.

Claire is left all alone and suddenly her life is upended, especially when FBI and police are on her doorstep telling her that Paul embezzled money from his company. And his partner (and her lover) Adam Quinn needs her to give him some files. Not knowing which files he wants she starts searching for them only to discover something completely different which will change her view on her marriage and on Paul Scott.

Lydia, who has been clean for years now and is living a peaceful life with her teenage daughter, receives a phone call from Claire who is panicking. The fact that Claire calls her is strange because they have been estranged from each other due to Lydia’s past as an addict and her having accused Paul of raping her. But now Claire seems to need her and Lydia drops everything to go help her younger sister.

Claire and Lydia start discovering very disturbing things about Paul and they have only opened up a can of worms, which is deeper than they expect!

This is a stand alone by Slaughter and having read Pretty Girls I am even more keen to start her Grant County and Will Trent series (if only I had too much time and not so much to read) but I plan on reading at least a few more Slaughter books in the coming months!

This was one hell of an intense thriller with so many harsh and hard scenes… it may require some trigger warnings for some people who are sensitive to toxic behaviour, abuse and torture of women and even child predators…

This being said, it is most definitely one of the best thrillers I have read these past few weeks! The story takes you on a trip you never really expect and the plot twists are unpredictable. To some of the readers I guess it may be over the top at some points but I had a bit of an early Dean Koontz books vibe coming from this one (like in Intensity)

Karin Slaughter has a way of portraying women in all their best and worst ways… Men are often dickheads (in her books.n but let’s be honest, in real life as well!) and she writes about strong and resilient women! Before this book I had only read one Will Trent novel (After that night) and the Andrea Oliver novels… this one leans more into the latter where the main character needs to survive an unusual situation!

I truly love Karin’s writing, the more books I read by her the more I start to love them. So be sure to follow my reviews because I will be back with more Karin Slaughter!

Dit boek werd in het Nederlands vertaald als ‘Mooie Meisjes’ en is momenteel verkrijgbaar bij HarperCollins Holland & Vlaanderen.

https://www.harpercollins.nl/9789402770575/mooie-meisjes/