Pretty Girls (Slaughter)

Pretty Girls 
Karin Slaughter, 2015
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062429056


Summary
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. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—January 6, 1971
• Raised—Jonesboro, Georgia
• Education—Georgia State University
• Currently—lives in Atlanta, Georgia


Karin Slaughter, an American crime writer, was born in a small southern Georgia community in 1971. She now lives in Atlanta where, in addition to writing, she has been active in the "Save the Libraries" campaign on behalf of the DeKalb County Library. Slaughter is  widely credited with coining the term "investigoogling" in 2006.

Publishing history
Slaughter's first novel Blindsighted, published in 2001, became an international success. It was published in almost 30 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for Best Thriller Debut of 2001. Since then, Slaughter has written some 20 books, which have sold more than 30 million copies in 32 languages.

Fractured (2008), the second novel in the Will Trent series, debuted at number one in both the UK and the Netherlands, and it was the number one adult fiction title in Australia. At the same time, Faithless (2005) became the number one bestseller in Germany.

Two of Slaughter's stories, "Rootbound" and "The Blessing of Brokenness," are included in Like a Charm, an anthology of mysteries, each of which features a charm bracelet which brings bad luck to its owner. The stories' settings vary greatly, ranging from 19th-century Georgia to wartime Leeds, England. The anthology's contributors include Lee Child, John Connolly, Emma Donoghue, Lynda La Plante, and Laura Lippman, among others.
 
Series
Slaughter was first known for her Grant County series set in Heartsdale, Georgia, of Grant County (both fictional locales). The stories are told through the perspectives of three primary characters: Sara Linton, the town's pediatrician and part-time coroner; Jeffrey Tolliver, the chief of police and Linton's husband; and Detective Lena Adams.

The Will Trent series, debuting in 2006, takes place in Atlanta. The series features special Agent Will Trent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and his partner Faith Mitchell.

Next came the Georgia Series, beginning in 2009 with Undone. This series brings together characters from the Grant County and Will Trent/Atlanta novels. 

Stand-alone works
Martin Misunderstood is an original audio novella narrated by Wayne Knight. Both story and narration were nominated for an Audie Award in 2009. The book was translated into Dutch and given away to over one million readers. Thorn in My Side (2011) is an ebook novella.

Other stand-alones include Cop Town (2014), Pretty Girls (2015), and The Good Daughter (2017) — all of which received strong reviews. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/8/2015.)

Visit the author's website.

Book Reviews
A hell-raising thriller that departs from [Slaughter's] previous soft-boiled investigative procedurals.... [Pretty Girls is] a genuinely exciting narrative driven by strong-willed female characters who can't wait around until the boys shake the lead out of their shoes.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review


Claire Scott, the heroine of this gripping standalone..., thought she knew everything about her architect husband, Paul, but her posh Atlanta life is turned upside down when he’s fatally stabbed in an alley.... [An] unsettling tale.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Slaughter's stand-alone novel packs a heck of a wallop, and while it's a powerful thriller, it's also a deft look into a family forced to confront horrific tragedy. Slaughter's longtime fans will be thrilled. New readers will be hooked on this twisted tale from page one. —Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX
Library Journal


(Starred review.)  Once she's plunged you into this maelstrom, Slaughter shreds your own nerves along with those of the sisters.... The results are harrowing. Slaughter is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that she makes most of her high-wire competition look pallid, formulaic, or just plain fake.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)

GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers

1. Talk about the characters—in Pretty Girls, especially, the two sisters. How were they shaped by their family history? Talk about their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they more one-dimensional heroes and villains?

2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you, the reader, begin to piece together what happened?

3. Good crime writers are skillful at hiding clues in plain sight. How well does the author hide the clues in this work?

4. Does the author use red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray?

5. Talk about plot's twists & turns—those surprising developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray. Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense? Are they  plausible? Or do the twists & turns feel forced and preposterous—inserted only to extend the story.

6. Does the author ratchet up the story's suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? How does the author build suspense?

7. What about the ending—is it satisfying? Is it probable or believable? Does it grow out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 2). Or does the ending come out of the blue? Does it feel forced...tacked-on...or a cop-out? Or perhaps it's too predictable. Can you envision a better, or different, ending?

8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?

9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?

(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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