5 Stars from me!

This book is brilliant, clear a weekend, get stocked up with coffee and biscuits and hunker down for a fabulous time, immersed in a skilfully written book.

I used to read Karin Slaughter books all the time (until she killed of a certain character and I feel out of love with the whole franchise), ahem, anyway fortunately for me I got over myself and picked up a copy of Pretty Girls.

The family relationship struggles had a real feel to them, Claire and her perfect life with Paul had a real feel to it. Lydia and her issues, her hard life, her new ‘is he too good to be true?’ beau, all felt real.

My only gripe was with the letters from their dad, they just didn’t bring anything to the party for me – but maybe I’m just not sentimental enough! They certainly didn’t have a negative impact on the story. Actually two gripes, I couldn’t see the point of including the bit about Claire’s explosion on the tennis court either. I get that it helped to show a peak into someone else’s psyche, but, for me, it didn’t fit with Claire.

They are, however, tiny, minuscule little points – the book and the storyline were really good and I found myself late for two appointments on two different days because I just kept on ‘reading to the end of this bit’.

If you are looking for a book that you won’t want to put down then this is it.

Synopsis: Sisters. Strangers. Survivors. 

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful thriller from one of the finest suspense writers working today.