Missing Pieces
A Novel
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- ¥710
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- ¥710
発行者による作品情報
How far will a mother go to protect her family from a madman?
An unrivaled master of psychological suspense, Joy Fielding has written her most chilling and intricate novel yet--a compulsively readable look at the razor-thin line between daily domesticity and nerve-shattering terror.
It had to end in blood. Family therapist Kate Sinclair, healer of lost souls, perfect wife and mother, has suddenly become trapped in a nightmare of her own. Her teenage daughter has just discovered sex, lies, and rebellion. Her ex-boyfriend has returned to threaten her marriage. Her once-peaceful hometown is being awakened by chilling headlines: Another woman is missing. Kate can sense the darkness gathering around her, can see the mistakes, the missteps, the missing pieces. She is afraid of what tomorrow will bring.
Enter Colin Friendly, a man on trial for abducting and killing thirteen women--the handsome, "misunderstood" sociopath Kate's troubled sister plans to marry. Colin loves women to death. He can't wait to see Kate and the girls again. One dark night when they are home alone, disarmed, ready for bed...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Practical Kate Sinclair, 47, a family therapist married for 24 years and the mother of two teenaged daughters, is losing control of her orderly, settled life. She fights with her rebellious elder daughter, Sara, who's 17. Her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Even her body is betraying her, as hot flashes startle her metabolism. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with an old high-school sweetheart inflames her in a totally different way. Worst of all, though, is the infatuation of her sexy half-sister, Jo Lynn, with a man on trial for the murder of 13 women. Fielding's leisurely paced latest tale (after Don't Cry Now) of psychological suspense, written in no-frills prose and set in Florida's Palm Beach Gardens, follows Kate as she watches in horror her sister's growing involvement with Colin Friendly, sociopath and sexual sadist. Trying to protect her sister in some vague way, Kate accompanies Jo Lynn on her lovestruck daily excursions to court. Though the sisters' relationship strains credulity at times, an unexpected yet believable revelation about Jo Lynn's past explains the self-destructive behavior that has led her through three abusive marriages and into a relationship with a serial killer who eventually targets Kate's family for his particular malice. Prosaic courtroom and therapy scenes and simplistically portrayed secondary figures weigh down the storytelling, but Kates's honest, strong narration is up to the task of driving this novel of a family in turmoil to its bloody if redeeming resolution. 175,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; author tour.
