I love Karin Slaughter. Love her new releases, love her old books. She's my favorite thriller author. I've reached the point where I can say that without caveat. I'm still working my way through a couple of her backlist books, but I've read almost all of them.

But I do prefer her cop thrillers and Pieces of Her might be my least favorite of her books overall. So I guess it's good that she turned the sequel into a cop thriller because I did enjoy this one better.

My main struggle with this book was just the concept of it. It takes events from the first book (vague because spoilers) and ties them to this book in a way that is an unbelievable stretch. Like it just didn't need to exist. Since the main character is now a US Marshal, it doesn't require a personal connection for her to be involved in investigating a murder. I think this book would have been stronger if it hadn't been personal.

It flipped between the past and the present which I didn't love. Some of the bits in the past were fine, but the girl who was killed spent the whole time investigating who had raped and impregnated her and it got very tiresome. I was much more interested in the present day investigation where there was a lot more going on.

It also felt like there needed to be more time on the present day investigations. There was so much that by the time we got to the end, solutions were quickly slapped on in an anticlimactic way. Of the three main mysteries this book focused on, one happened off screen, one got the quickest of climaxes, and only one got a real resolution. It needed so much more.

But I love her writing style and I still think Slaughter's lesser works are still preferable to most other thrillers. She's fantastic even if I thought this book was only pretty good.