Book Review: Missing Pieces

Missing Pieces

Heather Gudenkauf's Missing Pieces certainly kept me engrossed. Otherwise I wouldn't have read the book in one sitting staying up all night. Which is also precisely why I am somewhat disappointed in it. Not because the Poirot'ish serial murder mystery was not thrilling. It definitely was, and it was undoubtedly fun watching the suspicion shift from one suspect to the other all through the course of the novel. Like as if I was reading an Agatha Christie paperback peppered with classic misdirections and red herrings. Ah the good old days! But I digress.

The problem with the story is the character of Sarah herself, whom I had a tough time relating to, and even less for her practically non-existent (and awkward) relationship with Jack, her husband of 20 years. And for an experienced former journalist that she is "meant" to be, it seemed as though Sarah had let her talents go rusty, resulting in she being an amateurish bumbling detective who goes about solving the mysterious death of Jack's aunt Julia, while saddled with insecurity and jealousy as she learns all that Jack had told her about him and his family was a lie. Part domestic drama (yeah, the Gone Girl type), part psychological thriller, Gudenkauf's Missing Pieces is a page-turner, but is also a miss.