Missing Pieces, Heather Gudenkauf

About the Book

Sarah Quinlan’s husband, Jack, has been haunted for decades by the untimely death of his mother when he was just a teenager, her body found in the cellar of their family farm, the circumstances a mystery. For years Jack has avoided returning home, but when his beloved aunt Julia is in an accident, Jack and Sarah are forced to confront the past that they have long evaded. 

Upon arriving, Sarah and Jack are welcomed by the family Jack left behind all those years ago. But as facts about Julia’s accident begin to surface, Sarah realizes that nothing about the Quinlans is what it seems. Sarah dives deep into the puzzling rabbit hole of Jack’s past, but the farther in she climbs, the harder it is for her to get out. And soon she is faced with a deadly truth she may not be prepared for.

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My Thoughts

I am working my way through Gudenkauf’s back catalog and picked this one up from my library. Sarah is a narrator that you grow to hate the more the story unfolds. I get that Jack hasn’t been completely honest about his past, but Sarah overreacts to small things and then underreacts to major things. (Uhm, hello, someone hit your rear bumper multiple times on the road as you were driving, and maybe it was just a fluke, some drunk teens?)

Another reviewer pointed out how she took 2 Vicodin after drinking alcohol, in what Sarah believes is a sketchy situation, which makes no sense because the last thing you would do is make yourself vulnerable if you didn’t feel safe. If you were a respected journalist before you had children, why are you so bad at investigating? Also, her husband’s aunt just died, and she can’t put away her issues for one day to support his loss. She’s just an unbelievably crappy person.

I usually can deal with unlikable characters, but she put me off to the whole story. There were no characters to root for; they were all fairly superficial. The storyline wasn’t strong enough on its own without at least one character to care about. And although this was a quick read, the storyline dragged in a few places. So this wasn’t a total homerun for me. However, as I really enjoy this author, I will continue my dive through her back catalog.