The Cephalopod Coffeehouse _ Pretty Girls

Welcome to another edition of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse. The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same.  In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. 

This month I'm going to tell you about Pretty Girls by Karen Slaughter

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.

I read this in a single sitting for two reasons: I was sick, and it was really good, even though I don't read a lot of books like this, ie thrillers with women in peril. But I grew to like both these sisters quite quickly, especially Lydia, whose sarcastic wit among the soccer moms totally cracked me up, and helped her stay strong later. If you do like thrillers, I highly recommend it. If you can't read about torture (it isn't gratuitous; the author tells you enough to horrify but doesn't drown you in all the details) then you might not enjoy this book.

In other news, 23 days til spring...