Missing Pieces

I didn’t like this one nearly as much as the last 2 books I read by this author. I really didn’t like any of the characters except for the Sheriff’s receptionist/secretary. It really didn’t make sense for the wife to be the one doing all the sleuthing, a self-appointed detective. In that aspect, I could see it being a corny Hallmark mystery.Jack and Sarah Quintana live on a beautiful lake in Larkspur, Montana. He’s a physical therapist. She writes an advice column for the newspaper. Their twin daughters, Elizabeth and Emma, have just started college. Jack’s Aunt Julia had a bad fall and was in the hospital in his hometown of Penny Gate, Iowa.Jack left there more than 20 years ago and had only been back once for his cousin’s Dean’s wedding to Jack’s high school sweetheart, Celia. Jack never talked about his childhood or his hometown. He’d only told Sarah that his parents were killed in a car accident when he was 15 and his sister, Amy, was 11. His mom’s sister, Aunt Julia, and her husband, Uncle Hal, took them in and treated them as their own. That last part was true, but the car accident was a lie, as Sarah soon found out after they flew out to Penny Gate to see his Aunt Julia.Jack’s sister, Amy, still lived in Penny Gate and had been the one who found Aunt Julia at the bottom of the stairs. She had been mooching off of them for years, abused pain pills, was often a zombie, just lost her job at the motel, and was sickly-looking, skeletal, haggard, bruised, and hungover. Jack hadn’t seen her in 4 years, when he had to rescue her after a relationship with a man in Washington state ended badly. When Aunt Julia died in the hospital and toxicology showed she’d been poisoned, Amy became a suspect. Her home was searched, a bloody weapon was found, and she was arrested.Sarah starts receiving weird emails under her column pseudonym, which very few people know. More strange things begin to happen. Sarah finds out that Jack’s mother, Lydia, had been killed in their basement, that Jack had been arrested as their first suspect, and that his father, John, swiftly left town, never returned, and became the head suspect. She also found out that Jack and Celia had dated all through high school and that she had intended to marry him. After Jack went away to college, his older cousin, Dean, came home and Celia fell for him and got married. Celia and Dean were renting Jack and Amy’s childhood home, the scene of the crime, and had been for years.Sarah begins to wonder if she knows her husband at all, and if he killed his own mother. Who is this man? She wants to go back home without him, but the Sheriff won’t allow anyone to leave town when more evidence comes to light.The suspense was okay, but the whole amateur sleuthing thing just made it too corny and unrealistic. I didn’t hate it, but wouldn’t recommend it. Her other books are much better.———————————————————————From the blurb: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 small farm town of Penny Gate, Iowa, where Jack was raised, and for years Jack avoided returning home. But when his beloved aunt Julia is in an accident, hospitalized in a coma, Jack and Sarah are forced to confront the past that they have long evaded.Upon arriving in Penny Gate, 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 realizes that nothing about the Quinlans is what it seems. Caught in a flurry of unanswered questions, Sarah dives deep into the puzzling rabbit hole of Jack's past. But the farther in she climbs, the harder it is for her to get out. And soon she is faced with a deadly truth she may not be prepared for.

This is Gudenkaufs first book that goes into the head of just one character. Sarah Quinlan is a Montana native married to a man from Iowa. She has never visited his state, the only way she has ever met his family is from Christmas and birthday cards and snapshots. Jack's last visit home was twenty years ago. He never brought his wife and kids to visit. He wants to keep his family away from his past.Then his much loved Aunt Julia has fallen down a flight of stairs in her son's home and is in the hospital in critical condition. He and Sarah, who insists on going with him, must return to Iowa. Everything in Iowa is different than in her home state. Everything so creepy and strange. Evil seems to permeate this small town. The trip takes place during autumn, the most beautiful season of the year. Ms Gudenkauf fills her book with feelings of dread and foreboding.Sarah Quinlan finds that Jack is not the man she married twenty years ago. He keeps his history secret from his wife. But how well can people really know each other? Are there secret parts in everyone that can't be revealed even to those close to them? Plus, those with unhappy childhoods tend not to speak about those times. A friend counsels Sarah that she feels Jack is keeping so much from his wife to protect her so she won't worry and be upset.But this small town does contain evil doers. The two farm houses set in the middle of corn fields. When the corn has grown very tall a person can get lost in the fields. Plus Jack's relatives. His sister, who is mentally ill, drinks too much, uses drugs, who calls her childhood home a house of horrors, his bereaved Uncle Hal, whose wife Julia dies in the hospital, his big, burly cousin, Dean, and Dean's too perfect wife, Celia. Whatever became of Jack's parents who have been gone so many years? His mother was found beaten to death in the dark, musty cellar of her home, his father ran off when Jack was a teenager. His Aunt Julia and Uncle Hal adopted Jack and younger sister, Amy, when this tragedy destroyed their family.Sarah does get too pushy about looking for facts present and past. She is determined to find the truth. In her past she was an investigative reporter and was excellent in her profession. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." She wants so badly to go home, far away from this strange town of horrors. The presence of evil does prevail in the haunted, little Iowa town. A town filled with secrets and lies.I started reading this book and couldn't stop until I finished. I needed to find out about all the tragedies and evil in Penny Gate.

I thought when I bought this book that it was an older re-released story by this author because of the amount of mistakes and some of the writing not being as good as the 3 books by her I've already read (giving all of them 5*) AND her lovely covers have gone, it seems. That's a real pity.The main character, Sarah, finding out what a bloody liar her husband Jack is, seemed way too dopey to me and seemed to talk a good talk but not see any of her intended actions through. That was very frustrating, along with her ability to catch on quickly. She came over as pretty dense a lot of the time. There appeared to be quite a lot of needless repetition in this, too. We kept being reminded how much Amy loved her Aunt Julia, that Sarah was going to fly home the next day (which she never did) and the Sheriff was forever telling them they needed to come into his office. That was getting very tiresome along with his telling them they wouldn't be flying home yet.......sigh.....The story was a 5* read for sure but the proofreading blew it for me. Especially as now she's a legitimate bestseller, it should be more polished, not heading the other way.The main gripe for me are the dropped words. "....Sarah wondered what else Jack might be keeping..." This was the first example but in no way the last, unfortunately. We lost an in "...having affair", go to was dropped from a sentence, so was to.....Then she writes "...what one day would befall their family" when it's usually "what would one day" and used back and not aback, Lydia's case was closed then open and then closed again, she used step and not steps, Luminol wasn't capitalised and she missed punctuation here and there.As you can see, presentation wasn't its best but the story was very good. Fingers crossed she gets a decent editor for the next one I read !

So disappointing.... Its quite an interesting little story but Heather Gudenkauf is hardly recognisable as the author from her previous (excellent) books. I can't help thinking that she wrote this one whilst still at school, or maybe college, and submitted it years ago only to have her publisher decide to brush the dust off and publish it now they have a bestselling author's name to trade on. Previous books were so nicely written and the characters so well developed, in this one the language is really "clunky" with nearly every sentence beginning with the protagonist's name ("Sarah..."). I am not sure I will read another one of Heather's books after this, I had thought she was a name I could trust for an excellent read.

Wow this author does not disappoint - I love her books and her style of writing and imagination are second to none.This story was very tense and I can only describe it as on the edge of your seat type of feeling. The characters were brilliant and they all gelled together. The plot was excellent and kept you guessing. I hate reading reviews that regurgitate the whole story so I'm keeping it short and sweet.I would recommend her books to everyone.Karrie 💞

I guessed who the killer was very early on, not because the evidence gave it away, but because I must read far too many thrillers. However, despite that, this was a brilliantLy written book, with lots of surprises. Well written, gripping and kept me reading till late in the night. I don't want to give anything away, but I can highly recommend it. I have read all of Heathers books so far, and can't wait for the next one.

I cannot praise this book high enough, it’s one of those books you want to get to the end to find the answer but it’s so good you just want the book to go on forever