Pretty Girls (Kathleen Early version) - Karin Slaughter

Written by Karin Slaughter
Read by Kathleen Early
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: September 29, 2015
Duration: 19:51:09

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.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful novel from one of the finest writers working today.

Claire Scott’s 19-year-old sister, Julia, disappeared 20 years ago. Since then, despite the fact that her sister Lydia once accused Paul of attempted rape, Claire’s been “happily” married to Paul–and estranged from Lydia. Then, a sudden, shocking act of violence leaves Paul dead and Claire reeling. Narrator Kathleen Early accurately delivers Claire’s revulsion when she discovers Paul’s private collection of “snuff” porn and boxes of detailed material on women who’ve been raped. As horrified as she is with Paul, Claire reviles herself even more for willfully ignoring the clues to his true nature. Early uses a hyper-edgy tone, keeping the ghastly descriptions understated, allowing the real horror to emerge. With stunning twists and unpredictable turns, Early’s performance of Slaughter’s chilling novel invents a new word for the OED: “unputdownable.” S.J.H. Winner of AudioFIle Earphones Award © AudioFile