And I have to say, these flashbacks are not a fun, nostalgia-filled romp, but instead almost exclusively contain cruelty and violence. I listened to half of this as an audiobook, and Kathleen Early does a great job with her narration, as she did with Pieces of Her (and all of Slaughter's books for that matter). The way Slaughter tells the story of Andrea's father is very clever and because of this, I'll have to bump my rating up.

Andrea Oliver guides the reader through the chapters set in the present with her new partner, Deputy Leonard ‘Catfish’ Bible adding words of wisdom to the investigation along with his sometimes humorous insight. The judge, Esther Vaughan, is currently at her summer home in Longbill Beach in Delaware, the same town where Andrea’s father grew up.

It's the characters: Andrea; Bible - her partner; Esther - the Judge and Emily's mother; Emily herself whose presence is still felt forty years after her murder; and the 'clique': Nardo who is crooked, a con-artist; Blake - a chancer now deceased; Ricky - Blake's twin; and Clay Morrow - wealthy, arrogant and selfish. I don't know what it is, is it HD audio or do I have dog hearing now that I can hear the swallowing and gulping.

This includes Emily embarking on a Columbo like investigation of the night of which she has no memory, in which she was given an acid tab and left to handle the devastating life altering repercussions, with no idea of how she got pregnant or by whom.

Following on from a truly horrifying experience, Andrea felt that she had been inadequately equipped to deal with the trauma that came her way so she made the decision to train as a US Marshal. The dual timeline was handled well with flashes back to the 80s, the day of the prom and the days leading up to Emily’s vicious attack. I found the narrator’s voice very boring at normal speed (it was sooo slow in some parts, perfect for putting me to sleep), so I had to speed up to match my reading.

There were periods in the central block of the story when it felt more drawn out than it really needed to be and this detracted from the overall impact of the narrative. For her first assignment, Andrea is sent to Longbill Beach to protect a judge who has received death threats. How this book made me feel: I have heard Karin Slaughter’s name many times before, but for some unknown reason I haven’t read any of her books before. She’s joined the Marshal program, much to the disapproval of her parents Laura and Gordon, and has cultivated the skills and instincts she was previously lacking. While Emily is there, she wants to discover who killed the judge’s pregnant teenage daughter, Emily, while she was in high school.

Because even though it’s not her best, a so-so Karin Slaughter novel still stands several heads above the standard thriller sitting next to it on the shelves.