A new Karin Slaughter series featuring my namesake!

A little bit of background📃

Slaughter by name, Slaughter by nature! Check out my introductory post on prolific American crime writer, Karin Slaughter, that contains my review of her four standalone books to date. You can also read my review of the Will Trent and Sara Linton series.

There's a new series for Slaughter to pour her considerable storytelling expertise into, this time featuring a woman with the same name as me, Andrea (Oliver). I say this because my name hardly ever appears in literature and I've not come across many other people called Andrea in my life. Anyhoo, here's my review of the two books to date in the new series.

Pieces of her | Published August 2018 | Read November 2019

The story📖

We are introduced to Andrea Oliver in the first book in her series in Pieces of her. It's not essential to read the first book before the second one as Andrea is a completely different person in book 2. That said, there are some references to Andrea's past in the second book so it's still better to read the books in order.

Pieces of her is really more about Andrea's mother, Laura, than Andrea herself. Laura and Andrea live a normally quiet existence in a small beachside community. One day, Andrea sees a side to her mother that has never been revealed before (i.e., Laura is a total bad ass). This sets off a chain of events that exposes Laura's past, forcing Andrea to confront her mother's history and identity (and her own backstory) and all the things that have previously been kept from her.

My thoughts on the book💭

Past secrets are totally my jam and I love a good complex backstory. There's an intriguing premise to Laura's past that I won't reveal so as to spoil, and I did enjoy following the trail of breadcrumbs.

The book is something of a departure for Slaughter as it doesn't have a gritty, violent and disturbing crime at its heart. The book feels as if it exists solely as a set up for the series. I assume it's supposed to be more relationship-driven, but it's a bit overblown and disconnected, and the characterisation is left wanting. Slaughter is much better than this book suggests at writing characters with depth that connect to the reader. Laura is definitely more interesting than her daughter, but the whole of Laura's backstory is implausible.

Pieces of her is quite pedestrian in pacing compared with Slaughter's usual stories, although it does pick up in the last third. I appreciate that Slaughter may have been trying out a new approach, but the book feels flat. The darkness that underscores Slaughter's other books is absent.

In sum📝

I like the idea of basing a story on questioning how well we really know the people who are closest to us. However, Pieces of her isn't up to Slaughter's usual standard. My three stars is probably generous and awarded more out of loyalty to the author than anything. Andrea is insufferable, immature and naïve, and that has an impact on the reading experience. Fortunately, the second book in the series is better.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Girl, forgotten | Published June 2022 | Read December 2023

The story📖

As noted above, I didn't warm to Andrea in the first book. Thankfully, in Girl, forgotten Andrea resurfaces and transforms into a kick-butt newly-mind US Marshal. I like her now! She has some grit to her instead of being a bit pathetic as she was in the first book.

Girl, forgotten covers two storylines: the murder of 18-year-old Emily Vaughan on prom night in a small beachside town in 1982, and Andrea's first Marshal assignment to protect a federal judge (Emily's mother) who has been receiving death threats. Emily is pregnant when she is murdered and the case has never been solved, nor has the identity of the baby's father ever been discovered. The cold case turns up links to Andrea's past that are explored in the first book.

My thoughts on the book💭

The second Andrea Oliver book is deeply disturbing but it tells an important story. I loved that Andrea fought for Emily when she had been let down by pretty much everyone in her life. The way Emily is treated in the past story is appalling and I felt deeply for her plight. Slaughter did a terrific job of making me feel emotionally connected to Emily and to the female victims of the current crime.

I loved Andrea's partner, Leonard 'Catfish' Bible. He is an understated but shrewd operator and his inclusion in the story completely lifts its quality. His comic moments were a salve for the disturbing crimes he and Andrea were investigating. He is the perfect mentor for Andrea and it would be great to see him in future stories. They worked well as partners, and I liked the lighter shade of their scenes together, set against the deeply sad past and present cases.

I know Slaughter's books are never sugar-coated when it comes to hideous acts towards women, but this one is pretty grim. The crimes in the current story are about the abuse of power and dehumanising of women. I find these topics hard to read about so I struggled with the rawness of the subject matter. Slaughter usually doesn't hold back when it comes to describing vile and heinous crimes, but at least Girl, forgotten is light on graphic descriptions of physical violence.

In sum📝

Despite the disturbing subject matter of both the cold and new cases, I found Girl, forgotten to be a compulsive read. There are a lot of tied threads in both cases that Slaughter cleverly weaves together. I thought the book was a unique take on the subject matter and I liked that Slaughter shone a light on patriarchy and power. It was nice to see Andrea develop, and I'd be keen to read more books with her and Catfish doing Marshal stuff together.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐