Missing Pieces

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’ve read a lot of Heather Gudenkauf books and they usually leave me on the edge. This one didn’t, there were too many unrealistic inconsistencies, and too many unnecessary adjectives. I will say, for a “whodunit” I was fooled until close to the end, so I will give an extra star for that.

of you seat suspense! I thought I had solved the mystery about 6 different times, but the twists and turns kept coming. An engaging and entertaining novel.

The book keeps the reader’s interests with several twists and turns that come together at the end.

MISSING PIECES is Heather Gudenkauf's newest book. I first read "One Breath Away" and was glued to every page. I then had to find and read every book she has ever written. Her books are a MUST PURCHASE as far as I'm concerned. They are that good!!!The book opens and we are on a farm in Penny Gate, Iowa owned by the Tierney family. Fifteen year old Jack and his eleven year old sister Amy are heading off to school as their mother Lydia is preparing a special dinner in celebration of the start of summer vacation. She heads down to the cellar to gather food for the dinner. While there she hears something, turns around and is stuck down by someone she appears to know.PRESENT DAY: Jack is now married with a family and lives in Larkspur, Montana. Jack is a physical therapist and his wife Sarah is an anonymous advice columnist for the Midwest Messenger, the local newspaper in Montana. Jack receives a call from his sister Amy about their Aunt Julia. Jack has not returned to his home town in twenty years. It does not hold fond memories for Jack. Nevertheless Jack and his wife are on their way to a town with deep, dark secrets and a past he has not shared with his wife. Sarah soon learns his last name was Tierney, not Quinlan. Aunt Julia and Uncle Hal Quinlan had raised Amy and Jack after they became orphans. Sarah soon learns, Lydia was murdered and Jack’s father John has not been seen since. In this small town of Penny Gate there are many secrets. Sarah begins to uncover all sorts of lies. Why is Jack being so secretive? Why would Jack lead her blindly into a town filled with secrets, horror, evil and violence?What about Lydia and the murder from twenty years ago that was never solved? Sarah soon realizes that nothing about the Quinlans is the truth.This book is full of suspicion, mistrust while nothing is as it appears. Two different accidents or falls turn into intriguing murders and a devilishly evil game of blind leading the blind. This is a whodunit mystery which will leave you trying to guess the identity of the murderer with twists and turns you do not see coming. Once you think you have it figured out, you then begin to suspect someone else. There is a number of evil people with two sides, making it difficult to determine who the killer is.

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 !

I like to be surprised by the ending. I don't want to figure out who done it before it is revealed.

I do love Heather's books so was looking forward to reading this one and I wasn't disappointed.The story is mainly centred around Jack whose mother was murdered when he was young with his father being suspected as the murderer but went missing. History repeats many years later when the aunt who brought up Jack and his sister is attacked.It is a completely unique story which sees Jack's wife discovering that the man she married is not who she thought he was and sets herself a task to unravel his past.The story has so many twists and turns that make sure that you keep changing your l mind about the murderer until the end when it turns out to be a complete curve ball that leaves everyone reeling.Totally gripping and well worth the 5 stars I cant wait for the next book.

Gudenkauf immerses us into the lives of fallible people in all their glory. Her characters are real and tear at a reader's heartstrings so that you'll keep them in mind long after the final page.

I'm a huge fan of Heather Gudenkauf, and although this is perhaps not her 'best' book (I'd give all her other work a sparkling 5 stars), it's still a great read. I zipped through the final third of the novel, keen to find out who 'dunnit' - losing precious sleep time in the process. Looking forward to Gudenkauf's next one. :-)