The Good Daughter

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

Published by HarperCollins

July 2017

Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind…
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy smalltown family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father – Pikeville's notorious defence attorney – devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.
Twenty-eight years later, and Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself – the archetypal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again – and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatised – Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it's a case which can't help triggering the terrible memories she's spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime which destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won't stay buried for ever…

I'll just start by saying that this is so different from Karin's previous book The Kept Woman which I've just finished listening to on audiobook.  For one thing, there is hardly any swearing in it!!!!  But seriously, it's sort of like reading a completely different author so maybe if you have read her books before and decided that they are not for you, this might be the one to change your mind.  Anyway, I digress so back to the book in hand....

The book flits back and forth, from the past to the present day of our two main characters, sisters Charlotte (Charlie) and Samantha.  When we first meet them they have just moved house due to a fire at their old property which has possibly been linked to their father Rusty's career as a lawyer, he often defends the prosecuted, and in many trials, gets them off from the crimes they have been charged with committing.  On a warm summers day the two girls are at home with their mother Gamma when two men enter the property.  Things don't go according to their plan though and Gamma is killed in front of her daughters; Samantha is left for dead, and Charlie runs for her life.

Twenty eight years later and the sisters become reunited after a series of events lead to a high-school shooting and a family injury forces them to work together.  Neither of the girls have ever really talked about what happened on the night Gamma was killed and as the case against schoolgirl Kelly Wilson builds, the sisters begin to realise that they cannot continue their lives without some sort of dialogue as to what they experienced.

There is a whole host of characters in this book and each is vital to the story itself, there are no real bitty characters here but there are lots of questions to be answered.  Did meek and mild Kelly kill two people at school?  Can Rusty get her off the charges she faces?  What happened when Charlie ran on that horrific evening?  Karin Slaughter keeps the tension up throughout the book, with some real twists in the plot throughout.  I really enjoyed reading this, though it may not be for the faint hearted.

Happy Reading


Miss Chapters x