Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf

Missing Pieces

by Heather Gudenkauf

New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf returns with a chilling page-turner about a woman chasing clues into a decades-old mystery that could have shattering repercussions.

Everyone has secrets…
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. The case rocked the town where Jack was raised, and for years Jack avoided returning home. But when his beloved aunt Julia is in an accident, hospitalised in a coma, Jack and Sarah are forced to confront the past that they have long evaded.
Sarah and Jack are welcomed by the family Jack left behind all those years ago—barely a trace of the wounds that had once devastated them all. But as facts about Julia’s accident begin to surface, Sarah realises that nothing about the Quinlans is what it seems. Caught in a flurry of unanswered questions, Sarah dives deep into the rabbit hole of Jack’s past, but the farther she climbs, the harder it is for her to get out. And soon she is faced with a hard reality she may not be prepared for.

Reviewed by Terri M. LeBlanc on

3 of 5 stars

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I am a big fan of Heather Gudenkauf’s novels. I’ve read everything she’s released except for one book. I was shocked and surprised to get approved via NetGalley to read Heather’s latest release, Missing Pieces.

I was immediately sucked into Missing Pieces. The prologue pulls you in and from that point forward the story doesn’t really let up. Set in Iowa, Jack returns with his wife, Sarah, after a close relative is seriously injured. Jack left Iowa over 20 years ago and this is his first trip back. Through the course of the novel, Sarah discovers things about Jack that she never knew. It’s creepy. It’s scary. It will make you want to avoid basements in old farmhouses. It will have you looking at your significant other and asking, “There aren’t any secrets about your past that you want to share, are there?” I may or may not have asked my husband this several times during day it took me to read Missing Pieces.

The book is fraught with tension which Gudenkauf has mastered writing. As Sarah slowly starts to put the pieces together, your mind starts turning and you can’t flip the pages fast enough to get to the reveal. And that’s where this story falls short. It hits a sour note on the reveal. Not enough pieces were shared for me to make the connection until it was too late. This is my least favorite thing about mystery novels. I want to get to the point of discovery JUST before or JUST as the character figures it out.

That’s not to say that Missing Pieces is a bad book. It got my heart racing. I kept asking questions. I kept looking at my husband out of the corner of my eye. I finished the book in one day and said at the end said, “Well, I didn’t see that coming.” It also got me out of a funk of one bad novel that I finished and one bad novel that I decided to DNF. Gudenkauf’s writing certainly delivers even if the ending was a bit rough.


This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 9 January, 2016: Finished reading
  • 9 January, 2016: Reviewed