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Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter

Thriller

Girl, Forgotten

by Karin Slaughter

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Quick take

In Karin Slaughter’s latest, a newly minted marshal on assignment can’t help being drawn into a gruesome cold case...

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Psychological

    Psychological

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Well_Known

    Famous author

  • Illustrated icon, Second_in_Series

    Second in series

Synopsis

A small town hides a big secret . . .

Who killed Emily Vaughn?

Prom Night. Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn dresses carefully for what’s supposed to be the highlight of any high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the night, because of that secret, she will be dead.

Nearly forty years later, Andrea Oliver, newly qualified as a U.S. Marshal, receives her first assignment: to go to Longbill Beach to protect a judge receiving death threats. But Andrea’s real focus isn’t the judge—it’s Emily Vaughn. Ever since she first heard Emily’s name a year ago, she’s been haunted by her brutal death. Nobody was ever convicted—her friends closed ranks, her family shut themselves off in their grief, the town moved on—so the killer is still out there. But now Andrea has a chance to find out what really happened . . .

Content warning

This books contains mentions of sexual assault.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Girl, Forgotten.

Girl, Forgotten

APRIL 17, 1982

Emily Vaughn frowned at the mirror. The dress was as beautiful as it had been in the store. Her body was the problem. She turned, then turned again, trying to find an angle that didn’t make her look like she’d thrown herself onto the beach like a dying whale.

From the corner, Gram said, “Rose, you should stay away from the cookies.”

Emily took a moment to recalibrate. Rose was Gram’s sister who’d died of tuberculosis during the Great Depression. Emily’s middle name was in honor of the girl.

“Gram.” She pressed her hand to her stomach, telling her grandmother, “I don’t think it’s the cookies.”

“Are you sure?” A sly smile rippled Gram’s lips. “I was hoping you would share.”

Emily gave her reflection another disapproving frown before forcing a smile onto her face. She knelt awkwardly in front of her grandmother’s rocking chair. The old woman was knitting a sweater that would fit a child. Her fingers dipped in and out of the tiny, puckered collar like hummingbirds. The long sleeve of her Victorian-style dress had pulled back. Emily gently touched the deep purple bruise ringing her bony wrist.

“Clumsy-mumsy.” Gram’s tone had the sing-song quality of one thousand excuses. “Freddy, you must change out of that dress before Papa gets home.”

Now Gram thought Emily was her uncle Fred. Dementia was nothing if not a stroll through the many skeletons lining the family closet.

Emily asked, “Would you like me to get you some cookies?”

“That would be wonderful.” Gram continued to knit but her eyes, which never really focused on anything, suddenly became transfixed by Emily. Her lips curved into a smile. Her head tilted to the side as if she was studying the pearlescent lining of a seashell. “Look at your beautiful, smooth skin. You’re so lovely.”

“It runs in the family.” Emily marveled at the almost tangible state of knowing that had transformed her grandmother’s gaze. She was there again, as if a broom had swept the cobwebs from her cluttered brain.

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Why I love it

An unsolved murder haunting a small town. A group of cliquish and sinister students. A creepy cult with an evil leader. Just writing these out, I can’t help humming “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. But these are just some of the plot elements from Karin Slaughter’s latest humdinger of a thriller, Girl, Forgotten. It sounds like a lot, but if you are familiar with Slaughter’s books, then you know she can put a lot of balls in the air and keep them up there, in mesmerizing patterns, while the chapters fly by.

Slaughter’s new book is the second featuring Andrea Oliver, following her debut in Pieces of Her. In this standalone sequel, the rookie U. S. Marshal is now tasked with protecting a judge who’s received a series of death threats, while also being asked to secretly investigate that judge’s daughter’s murder from forty years ago. There are many secrets in this book, and toward the end, the revelations come fast and flabbergasting. But what I most love about this story is that Slaughter has written a classic whodunit. There’s a closed circle of suspects, red herrings aplenty, and I imagine that most readers, like myself, will change their minds as to the identity of the killer many times before all is revealed.

A twisty and devilish read, Girl, Forgotten is another excellent thriller from Karin Slaughter. And I, for one, would very much welcome plenty more encounters with the ever-resourceful and gutsy Andrea Oliver.

Member ratings (18,285)

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View all
The Boyfriend
The Last One at the Wedding
Sleep Tight
First Lie Wins
House of Glass
Middle of the Night
Listen for the Lie
A Talent for Murder
Beautiful Ugly
Someone in the Attic
One Perfect Couple
Like Mother, Like Daughter
Kill for Me, Kill for You
Bad Tourists
Murder Road
Daughter of Mine
The Fury
The Other Mothers
When I’m Dead
The Soulmate
What Lies in the Woods
She Started It
The Only One Left
Dark Corners
Blacktop Wasteland
All the Dangerous Things
The Only Survivors
The Broken Girls
The Family Game
The Push
We Were Never Here
Things We Do in the Dark
The Golden Couple
The Stranger Upstairs
Gone Tonight
Too Good to Be True
The Last Word
You Are Not Alone
Rock Paper Scissors
Not a Happy Family
A Flicker in the Dark
Reckless Girls
The House Across the Lake
The Last Thing He Told Me
The Maidens
Everything We Didn't Say
The Paris Apartment
You're Invited
The Last Party
Dark Places
Pieces of Her
The Wife Between Us
Sharp Objects
None of This Is True
The Silent Patient
The Other Woman
Necessary People
The Family Upstairs
The Night Swim
Girl A
The Hunting Wives
Just Another Missing Person
First Born
The Lies I Tell
Breathless