What do you think?
Rate this book
Missing Pieces
Family therapist Kate Sinclair repairs other people's troubled lives, all the while seeming to revel in her picture-perfect marriage and handsome home. But a closer look reveals that things are not as they seem. When her half-sister JoLynn announces plans to marry a man on trial for the murder of 13 women who have gone missing in the Palm Beach area, Kate's house of cards begins tumbling down. To say that nothing will ever be the same again is an understatement of the highest order.
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 3, 1997
213 people are currently reading
1261 people want to read
About the author
Joy Fielding
121 books2,185 followersJoy Fielding (née Tepperman; born March 18, 1945) is a Canadian novelist and actress. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As Joy Tepperman, she had a brief acting career, appearing in the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) and in an episode of Gunsmoke. She later changed her last name to Fielding (after Henry Fielding) and began writing novels.
Fielding is also the screenwriter of the television film Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story.
At the age of 8, Joy Tepperman wrote her first story and sent it into a local magazine, and at age 12 sent in her first TV script, however both were rejected. She had a brief acting career, eventually giving it up to write full-time in 1972. She has published to date 22 novels, two of which were converted into film. Fielding's process of having an idea to the point the novel is finished generally takes a year, the writing itself taking four to eight months. Joy Fielding sets most of her novels in American cities such as Boston and Chicago. She has said that she prefers to set her novels in "big American cities, [as the] landscape seems best for [her] themes of urban alienation and loss of identity. Fielding is a Canadian citizen. Her husband's name is Warren, and they have two daughters, Annie and Shannon. They have property in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Palm Beach, Florida.
Fielding had an interview with the Vancouver Sun in 2007, just after her publication of Heartstopper. She enjoys catching readers off guard with the endings of her stories, but insists that "[it] isn't what her fiction is about", but rather more about the development of her characters. Discussing her novels with the Toronto Star in 2008, she said "I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My dialog is good. And my stories are really involving. I'm writing exactly the kind of books I like to write. And they're the kind of books I like to read. They're popular commercial fiction. That's what they are."
Fielding has been noted as a novelist who is more popular in the United States and foreign countries, rather than in her native Canada. For example, the novel Kiss Mommy Goodbye was more popular in the States, and See Jane Run in Germany. In addition, she had an American agent and publisher, although she has now switched to a Canadian publisher.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As Joy Tepperman, she had a brief acting career, appearing in the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) and in an episode of Gunsmoke. She later changed her last name to Fielding (after Henry Fielding) and began writing novels.
Fielding is also the screenwriter of the television film Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story.
At the age of 8, Joy Tepperman wrote her first story and sent it into a local magazine, and at age 12 sent in her first TV script, however both were rejected. She had a brief acting career, eventually giving it up to write full-time in 1972. She has published to date 22 novels, two of which were converted into film. Fielding's process of having an idea to the point the novel is finished generally takes a year, the writing itself taking four to eight months. Joy Fielding sets most of her novels in American cities such as Boston and Chicago. She has said that she prefers to set her novels in "big American cities, [as the] landscape seems best for [her] themes of urban alienation and loss of identity. Fielding is a Canadian citizen. Her husband's name is Warren, and they have two daughters, Annie and Shannon. They have property in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Palm Beach, Florida.
Fielding had an interview with the Vancouver Sun in 2007, just after her publication of Heartstopper. She enjoys catching readers off guard with the endings of her stories, but insists that "[it] isn't what her fiction is about", but rather more about the development of her characters. Discussing her novels with the Toronto Star in 2008, she said "I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My dialog is good. And my stories are really involving. I'm writing exactly the kind of books I like to write. And they're the kind of books I like to read. They're popular commercial fiction. That's what they are."
Fielding has been noted as a novelist who is more popular in the United States and foreign countries, rather than in her native Canada. For example, the novel Kiss Mommy Goodbye was more popular in the States, and See Jane Run in Germany. In addition, she had an American agent and publisher, although she has now switched to a Canadian publisher.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 208 reviews
September 25, 2011
the book was long, pointless, and rambling. i nearly gave up on the book several times. JoLynn has got to be the dumbest character ever.
March 1, 2012
I'm kinda new to Goodreads so I've been trying to really evaluate the books I've read from a literary perspective. Today I think I got over that. I don't have a literary background although I read quite a bit. Therefore, my focus from now on will be if I PERSONALLY ENJOYED THE SELECTION.
Missing Pieces is the first book I've read from this new attitude. I really, really liked it, although I spent quite a bit of time wanting to shake some sense into the main character. This woman was dealing with many, many problems that called to me in my middle age: a mother with progressing dementia, a teenage daughter out of control, a sister who was so nutso she was dangerous and a rediscovered old crush that looks pretty tempting. Just the normal stuff in today's world and stuff that has certainly been a part of my world.
Missing Pieces is the first book I've read from this new attitude. I really, really liked it, although I spent quite a bit of time wanting to shake some sense into the main character. This woman was dealing with many, many problems that called to me in my middle age: a mother with progressing dementia, a teenage daughter out of control, a sister who was so nutso she was dangerous and a rediscovered old crush that looks pretty tempting. Just the normal stuff in today's world and stuff that has certainly been a part of my world.
February 8, 2015
Blech. A pathetic tale of a whiny woman who has it all and attempts to throw it all away, over and over. The final 4 pages summed up 430 pages of blather. Don't bother with this one.
April 22, 2016
In ‘Missing Pieces’, therapist Kate Sinclair attempts to help people with their dilemmas but ironically, she’s unable to cope with her own set of problems. Her husband Larry is somewhat distant and spends most of his time golfing, her eldest daughter Sara is rebellious and out of control, her mother has Alzheimer’s and her sister Jo Lynn is hell bent on marrying Colin who’s on trial for the murder of 13 women. Plus, her former flame Robert is back in her life and she’s having a hard time resisting him.
Although I couldn’t completely relate to Kate, I truly felt for her. She was one heck of a busy woman surrounded by many people yet she was alone for she had no one she could turn to in times of trouble and distress. Her job was depressing as she had to listen to her clients’ woes or be the mediator between two arguing individuals (usually couples). At home, she had to deal with Sara who kept lying, showed no respect towards her and repeatedly betrayed her trust. Her youngest daughter, Michelle posed no problems except that she felt like she didn’t get enough attention (which was true). Kate definitely deserved an award for putting up with so much and being able to keep her cool most of the time.
There were many unbearable characters but they were distinguishable and believable. At least they did make the story more interesting. Jo Lynn was an absolute nightmare from the beginning till the end. She was stupid, naïve and dependent. She fell for Colin after looking at his handsome face featured in the newspaper and was immediately convinced that he was innocent. Kate rationalized that she was attracted to him because she’d been abused by her string of ex-husbands hence she associated it with love. Therefore, despite the possibility of Colin killing so many women she gravitated towards him as he’s the sort of dangerous man she tends to end up with.
I liked Kate but I disliked how she still cared about dumb Jo Lynn. I understand it’s not that easy to severe ties with a loved one but seriously.. Kate even accompanied her to go to the court and subsequently to visit Colin in prison. In return, Jo Lynn refused to give up on marrying him even though Kate tried to dissuade her. In addition, she kept asking for money and was a bad influence on Sara. Speaking of Sara, she was also despicable. I don’t care that she’s a teenager – that’s no excuse for her poor behaviour. She was mean to everyone including Michelle. It’s no surprise that the only person she wasn’t nasty to was Jo Lynn. ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ comes to mind.
The romance (or rather, lack of) aspect was well-written. Kate and Larry were clearly drifting apart but neither one of them was wholly right or wrong. Kate longed for him to comfort her whenever things were going awry (which was pretty much all the time) and to be more outspoken regarding Sara. Those were acceptable but she also shouldn’t have continued keeping in touch with Robert, knowing that she was interested in him and vice versa. More importantly, both were married hence Robert’s willingness to lead her on spoke volumes about his view on relationships. As for Larry, he was patient with Kate but he really needed to quit using golf as a way to escape from domestic problems (though it's hard to blame him for wanting to steer clear of chaos).
Colin was a convincing villain. He was manipulative, smart and somewhat charming. This book explored several serious topics very well indeed. For instance – relationship predicaments, family, crime, innocence and guilt, abuse, difficult children and mental illness. At times, the book veered on the edge of becoming long-winded but I personally didn’t mind that as the author’s writing style appealed to me. Besides that, the characters were fleshed out and each storyline was given a proper resolution. I really liked the climax of the story and the saviour was someone unexpected. It was certainly my favourite part in the book.
Overall, ‘Missing Pieces’ was highly enjoyable and thrilling. It might not be an instant page-turner but it’s a story written with care, complete with details and realism.
Although I couldn’t completely relate to Kate, I truly felt for her. She was one heck of a busy woman surrounded by many people yet she was alone for she had no one she could turn to in times of trouble and distress. Her job was depressing as she had to listen to her clients’ woes or be the mediator between two arguing individuals (usually couples). At home, she had to deal with Sara who kept lying, showed no respect towards her and repeatedly betrayed her trust. Her youngest daughter, Michelle posed no problems except that she felt like she didn’t get enough attention (which was true). Kate definitely deserved an award for putting up with so much and being able to keep her cool most of the time.
There were many unbearable characters but they were distinguishable and believable. At least they did make the story more interesting. Jo Lynn was an absolute nightmare from the beginning till the end. She was stupid, naïve and dependent. She fell for Colin after looking at his handsome face featured in the newspaper and was immediately convinced that he was innocent. Kate rationalized that she was attracted to him because she’d been abused by her string of ex-husbands hence she associated it with love. Therefore, despite the possibility of Colin killing so many women she gravitated towards him as he’s the sort of dangerous man she tends to end up with.
I liked Kate but I disliked how she still cared about dumb Jo Lynn. I understand it’s not that easy to severe ties with a loved one but seriously.. Kate even accompanied her to go to the court and subsequently to visit Colin in prison. In return, Jo Lynn refused to give up on marrying him even though Kate tried to dissuade her. In addition, she kept asking for money and was a bad influence on Sara. Speaking of Sara, she was also despicable. I don’t care that she’s a teenager – that’s no excuse for her poor behaviour. She was mean to everyone including Michelle. It’s no surprise that the only person she wasn’t nasty to was Jo Lynn. ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ comes to mind.
The romance (or rather, lack of) aspect was well-written. Kate and Larry were clearly drifting apart but neither one of them was wholly right or wrong. Kate longed for him to comfort her whenever things were going awry (which was pretty much all the time) and to be more outspoken regarding Sara. Those were acceptable but she also shouldn’t have continued keeping in touch with Robert, knowing that she was interested in him and vice versa. More importantly, both were married hence Robert’s willingness to lead her on spoke volumes about his view on relationships. As for Larry, he was patient with Kate but he really needed to quit using golf as a way to escape from domestic problems (though it's hard to blame him for wanting to steer clear of chaos).
Colin was a convincing villain. He was manipulative, smart and somewhat charming. This book explored several serious topics very well indeed. For instance – relationship predicaments, family, crime, innocence and guilt, abuse, difficult children and mental illness. At times, the book veered on the edge of becoming long-winded but I personally didn’t mind that as the author’s writing style appealed to me. Besides that, the characters were fleshed out and each storyline was given a proper resolution. I really liked the climax of the story and the saviour was someone unexpected. It was certainly my favourite part in the book.
Overall, ‘Missing Pieces’ was highly enjoyable and thrilling. It might not be an instant page-turner but it’s a story written with care, complete with details and realism.
July 9, 2017
Дълго отлагах поредната книга на авторката.
Прекалено много извратени неща се съдържат в нейните книги.
И тази не прави изключение.
Но има и за какво да се замислиш.
Героинята е близко до моята възраст и я тревожат подобни на моите мисли.
Опитва се да сглоби липсващите парчета от живота си.
"Има неща,върху които нямаме власт-действията на другите са най-красноречивият пример.Колкото и да не ни харесва,трябва да се отдръпнем назад и да оставим хората да следват собствения си път,да допускат собствените си грешки,без значение колко ясно виждаме надвисналата опасност."
"Наистина е страшно, когато представата ни за нас самите вече не отговаря на образа,който виждаме в огледалото.Още по-ужасно е обаче,когато осъзнаеш , че останалите изобщо не те забелязват,че си станала невидима."
"думите нараняват повече от камъните.Те отекват в тишината на съзнанието,дълго след като другите рани са зараснали."
Прекалено много извратени неща се съдържат в нейните книги.
И тази не прави изключение.
Но има и за какво да се замислиш.
Героинята е близко до моята възраст и я тревожат подобни на моите мисли.
Опитва се да сглоби липсващите парчета от живота си.
"Има неща,върху които нямаме власт-действията на другите са най-красноречивият пример.Колкото и да не ни харесва,трябва да се отдръпнем назад и да оставим хората да следват собствения си път,да допускат собствените си грешки,без значение колко ясно виждаме надвисналата опасност."
"Наистина е страшно, когато представата ни за нас самите вече не отговаря на образа,който виждаме в огледалото.Още по-ужасно е обаче,когато осъзнаеш , че останалите изобщо не те забелязват,че си станала невидима."
"думите нараняват повече от камъните.Те отекват в тишината на съзнанието,дълго след като другите рани са зараснали."
August 23, 2022
This is one of Fielding’s earlier books and it shows. Even here she demonstrates her ability to hook the reader quickly and tell a fast-paced story. However, the book is crammed with just about every social issue imaginable and peopled with characters who behave so outrageously that it’s hard to imagine they could ever survive in society.
September 29, 2010
Therapist Kate Sinclair seeks to repair other people's lives. Her own stable marriage and handsome home are like the icing on the cake of a perfect life.
But when Kate's emotionally fragile sister Jo Lynn develops an obsession with alleged serial killer Colin Friendly, the first signs of trouble begin to appear. At around the same time, an old love interest from Kate's past surfaces and starts making overtures, even tempting Kate with her own call-in radio show (he owns several radio stations). Adolescent hijinks from Kate's oldest daughter Sara add just enough high drama to the mix to tear into the now fragile fabric of Kate's stable life.
As her life begins to unravel, missing pieces of a puzzle about the past begin to trouble Kate, with nightmares interrupting her sleep. Her mother's symptoms of Alzheimer's add to the confusion. Meanwhile, Jo Lynn and Sara become bosom buddies, both lashing out at everyone around them.
Once Colin Friendly is convicted and given the death sentence, Kate believes that things will finally calm down. Unfortunately, the trouble is only beginning.
What new pieces of the puzzle from Kate and Jo Lynn's past will come to the forefront? What surprising move will Jo Lynn make, and what will finally bring the whole family to the point of crisis?
The suspense builds while all the characters are suddenly thrust into a highly dangerous situation. "Missing Pieces," told in the first person voice of Kate, is one of those books that you cannot put down. (If you do put it down, like I did briefly, it may disappear; that is why I had to get the book from the library to finish it). It was well worth the slight delay in my reading momentum. Once I picked it up again, though, I was drawn again into the very real world of the characters that is believable and memorable.
Five stars.
But when Kate's emotionally fragile sister Jo Lynn develops an obsession with alleged serial killer Colin Friendly, the first signs of trouble begin to appear. At around the same time, an old love interest from Kate's past surfaces and starts making overtures, even tempting Kate with her own call-in radio show (he owns several radio stations). Adolescent hijinks from Kate's oldest daughter Sara add just enough high drama to the mix to tear into the now fragile fabric of Kate's stable life.
As her life begins to unravel, missing pieces of a puzzle about the past begin to trouble Kate, with nightmares interrupting her sleep. Her mother's symptoms of Alzheimer's add to the confusion. Meanwhile, Jo Lynn and Sara become bosom buddies, both lashing out at everyone around them.
Once Colin Friendly is convicted and given the death sentence, Kate believes that things will finally calm down. Unfortunately, the trouble is only beginning.
What new pieces of the puzzle from Kate and Jo Lynn's past will come to the forefront? What surprising move will Jo Lynn make, and what will finally bring the whole family to the point of crisis?
The suspense builds while all the characters are suddenly thrust into a highly dangerous situation. "Missing Pieces," told in the first person voice of Kate, is one of those books that you cannot put down. (If you do put it down, like I did briefly, it may disappear; that is why I had to get the book from the library to finish it). It was well worth the slight delay in my reading momentum. Once I picked it up again, though, I was drawn again into the very real world of the characters that is believable and memorable.
Five stars.
April 24, 2017
Although Joy Fielding has been one of my favourite writers for several years, I did not particularly like this one. I found it somewhat boring as there was not much action throughout the story. The main character, a female mental therapist has two kids, one of which is a real brat. Her marriage is starting to show cracks, and her sister causes her a lot of worries with her involvement with a convicted serial killer. The finale is very predictable and shallow. I was glad I finished it. However, this rather disappointing read will not keep me from reading other Joy Fielding thrillers.
December 31, 2010
Kate, the therapist deals with her clients better than she deals with her family. She has two daughters who keep her busy...one is wild....and her half sister, Jo Lynn cant find happiness and goes from one abuser husband to another. And to top it off, now she wants to marry a serial killer. And when things couldn't get worse...an old flame meets up with her and further confuses her...If I talk anymore, I will spoil this review, so please read it and she how you cannot put down this book....another Joy Fielding great!
May 26, 2009
Favorite Quote: "My whole life feels like one of those giant jigsaw puzzles, the kind that takes forever to put together, & then just when you finally think you've got it, you discover that all the key pieces are missing."
March 14, 2016
I didn't like this one as much as Someone is Watching, but it definitely held my interest.
November 22, 2019
If I started with this book I never would have read another. It was a complete waste of time. It wasn’t terribly written just a pointless story. No excitement or mystery or whatever.
December 7, 2017
Sandwich-Generation:
unten die pubertären Kinder, oben die senile Mutter und selber auch nicht in der Spur.
unten die pubertären Kinder, oben die senile Mutter und selber auch nicht in der Spur.
October 22, 2022
My favorite author. She is a awesome writer. This book was about a therapist who's life was falling apart. Her sister is in love with a serial killer among one of her many problems
July 26, 2023
A great read full of twists and turns! Definitely a page turner you won't want to put down!
October 18, 2022
The TL;DR - This is another one of those books that I got for free, and couldn't bring myself to finish. This book actively made me mad, in the same sort of way that I find many people in the real world make me mad. I read to escape from the world, not to experience more of its most frustrating moments on the page in front of me.
Accordingly, the below review is based on reading the first half, followed by a quick skim of the 2nd, and reading the finale. I don't feel like I missed much between pages 200 and 380.
🔸 Characters🔸
So okay - the characters. Normally I break this section up into the protagonists, antagonists, and the supporting cast. I'm not going to do that this time.
The reason why is that what I'm about to say covers all of them equally. They felt real. Like, as in, take people posting whatever stream of consciousness garbage comes into their head online, and these characters feel like that.
Because ye-gods, everyone in this was dysfunctional in believable ways. I literally couldn't look at a single character and say "Nerp, that's unrealistic."
Kate, our POV character, is a mess - everyone around her thinks she has it so together, and yet in reality she's falling apart because of the expectations of others. I can relate to that. I can relate to Sara, the teen daughter who is an absolute b!tch almost every time she opens her mouth. She reminds me of how sullen and confrontational I was in my teen years with my own parents. Kate's mother is heartbreakingly accurate in the depiction of an older woman starting to lose their mind to Alzheimers. Even JoLynn, who I repeatedly thought "Surely she can't be this stupid," reminds me of all those stories of women going to murder trials and swooning over the culprit, because he couldn't possibly have done it.
I didn't know the term til I read this book, but there's a legit medical term for it: Hybristophilia.
The accused killer didn't get a lot of portrayal in the first half of the book themselves, but when I skimmed the back half, they turned out largely as I expected.
The problem with this, however, is that I felt most of the characters didn't have enough redeeming features for me to want to like them. Fielding was spot-on with all their bad traits, but their good traits were hidden so deeply under them that it wasn't really worth the dig.
6/10
🔹Atmosphere/Setting🔹
Again - this was just a slice of someone's life during a really bad period. Fielding gets the details spot on of real-world life and inter-relational difficulty, to the point of causing the reader actual frustration. Of course, it would've been nice to have some real moments of levity to break from the constant litany of bad things happening - and there were - but those that were had little to no effect in dampening the deluge of the bad.
5/10
🔸 Writing Style🔸
Again, listening to Kate's internal monologue (as this was a first-person book) felt like she was voicing many of the same complaints I myself have had in the past with people I know and love.
Again - I quit this book because it was too real. So it wasn't poorly written. It just wasn't enjoyably written.
7/10
🔹 Plot 🔹
I hated the plot. There's no two bones about it. It was a fictionalized retelling of events that have already happened in the real world a few thousand times over. And because of this, the creativity tends to suffer a bit - because again - all of these micro-stories have happened to 'us', the collective consciousness of the average person, in some fashion or another. And if it didn't happen to us, with today's 24/7 news cycle, we've likely heard of it happening to someone else.
Again - my inability to finish is because this was so realistic, there was no disbelief to suspend. And therein lies my main criticism with the plot - I could've stuck with it had there been a much stronger focus on the murder trial. But in the first 200 pages it is just one of several interconnected familial drama stories -
Frankly, it feels like a pity party for Kate - "Oh, woe is me, my family sucks!"
Like, honey - we already deal with this sort of crap ourselves. We don't need to shoulder your burdens as well.
Frankly, Kate spends so much time dealing with her family issues (and again, it's so well written as to cause the reader no end of frustration on her behalf), that the frustration isn't really worth the 'pay-off' of the actual 'thriller' storyline that is mostly hanging out in the background until the last 30-40 pages. And that's not enough to keep me invested through the first 380 pages of frustration.
3/10
🔸 Intrigue🔸
Another reason I disliked this book enough to give up on it is that you know how the whole thing is likely to go pretty much within the first chapter or two, again, because the events of this book mirror reality so much. Maybe that was intended as a way to build suspense, but when skimming the back-half of the book, that suspense is moot. Part of 'suspense' to me is having a dreadful idea of what is going to happen, but not being sure if that will be the intended outcome, and possibly being surprised.
Missing Pieces falls flat on this. The killer is who you think it is right from the get-go. The people you find sleazy really are. The characters who're throwing themselves into danger because of their stupid decisions, they get punished for it. Really the only questionable thing to me was whether or not
0/10
🔹 Logic / Relationships🔹
Back to a bit of praise - within the concept of the story, everyone acted logically according to their own characters, and even the outcome of the trial was believable. Though I did find some of the characters so stupid that even with their actions mirroring their character, I found myself having a weird cognitive dissonance.
Basically - I couldn't believe someone as willfully dumb as JoLynn actually could exist. Except there have been lots of well known instances of women just as dumb as her existing, and doing exactly what she'd do. So I was disbelieving a thing I knew to be true. Weird.
I noted no Deus Ex Machinas (though again, I did skim the back half of the book) and how the end crisis is resolved makes perfect sense for what was set up throughout the introductory pages.
7/10
🔸 Enjoyment🔸
Coming to the end of the review, I can safely say this is the best-written book that I absolutely hated (though that's a small list of candidates - Dante's Inferno (which lost me purely on basis of it being poetry) and Abduction being the only other competitors). For the die-hard fan of the thriller genre, you'll probably be able to push through to the end. For someone who loves to lap up the spilled tea of family drama, this is a gold-mine.
That's just not me. For me, this was a mass-market-paperback waste of a few hours. So into the donation bin it goes. Most enjoyment I had came from the physical copy being a decent-size print even for a mass-market book.
2/10
Accordingly, the below review is based on reading the first half, followed by a quick skim of the 2nd, and reading the finale. I don't feel like I missed much between pages 200 and 380.
🔸 Characters🔸
So okay - the characters. Normally I break this section up into the protagonists, antagonists, and the supporting cast. I'm not going to do that this time.
The reason why is that what I'm about to say covers all of them equally. They felt real. Like, as in, take people posting whatever stream of consciousness garbage comes into their head online, and these characters feel like that.
Because ye-gods, everyone in this was dysfunctional in believable ways. I literally couldn't look at a single character and say "Nerp, that's unrealistic."
Kate, our POV character, is a mess - everyone around her thinks she has it so together, and yet in reality she's falling apart because of the expectations of others. I can relate to that. I can relate to Sara, the teen daughter who is an absolute b!tch almost every time she opens her mouth. She reminds me of how sullen and confrontational I was in my teen years with my own parents. Kate's mother is heartbreakingly accurate in the depiction of an older woman starting to lose their mind to Alzheimers. Even JoLynn, who I repeatedly thought "Surely she can't be this stupid," reminds me of all those stories of women going to murder trials and swooning over the culprit, because he couldn't possibly have done it.
I didn't know the term til I read this book, but there's a legit medical term for it: Hybristophilia.
The accused killer didn't get a lot of portrayal in the first half of the book themselves, but when I skimmed the back half, they turned out largely as I expected.
The problem with this, however, is that I felt most of the characters didn't have enough redeeming features for me to want to like them. Fielding was spot-on with all their bad traits, but their good traits were hidden so deeply under them that it wasn't really worth the dig.
6/10
🔹Atmosphere/Setting🔹
Again - this was just a slice of someone's life during a really bad period. Fielding gets the details spot on of real-world life and inter-relational difficulty, to the point of causing the reader actual frustration. Of course, it would've been nice to have some real moments of levity to break from the constant litany of bad things happening - and there were - but those that were had little to no effect in dampening the deluge of the bad.
5/10
🔸 Writing Style🔸
Again, listening to Kate's internal monologue (as this was a first-person book) felt like she was voicing many of the same complaints I myself have had in the past with people I know and love.
Again - I quit this book because it was too real. So it wasn't poorly written. It just wasn't enjoyably written.
7/10
🔹 Plot 🔹
I hated the plot. There's no two bones about it. It was a fictionalized retelling of events that have already happened in the real world a few thousand times over. And because of this, the creativity tends to suffer a bit - because again - all of these micro-stories have happened to 'us', the collective consciousness of the average person, in some fashion or another. And if it didn't happen to us, with today's 24/7 news cycle, we've likely heard of it happening to someone else.
Again - my inability to finish is because this was so realistic, there was no disbelief to suspend. And therein lies my main criticism with the plot - I could've stuck with it had there been a much stronger focus on the murder trial. But in the first 200 pages it is just one of several interconnected familial drama stories -
Frankly, it feels like a pity party for Kate - "Oh, woe is me, my family sucks!"
Like, honey - we already deal with this sort of crap ourselves. We don't need to shoulder your burdens as well.
Frankly, Kate spends so much time dealing with her family issues (and again, it's so well written as to cause the reader no end of frustration on her behalf), that the frustration isn't really worth the 'pay-off' of the actual 'thriller' storyline that is mostly hanging out in the background until the last 30-40 pages. And that's not enough to keep me invested through the first 380 pages of frustration.
3/10
🔸 Intrigue🔸
Another reason I disliked this book enough to give up on it is that you know how the whole thing is likely to go pretty much within the first chapter or two, again, because the events of this book mirror reality so much. Maybe that was intended as a way to build suspense, but when skimming the back-half of the book, that suspense is moot. Part of 'suspense' to me is having a dreadful idea of what is going to happen, but not being sure if that will be the intended outcome, and possibly being surprised.
Missing Pieces falls flat on this. The killer is who you think it is right from the get-go. The people you find sleazy really are. The characters who're throwing themselves into danger because of their stupid decisions, they get punished for it. Really the only questionable thing to me was whether or not
0/10
🔹 Logic / Relationships🔹
Back to a bit of praise - within the concept of the story, everyone acted logically according to their own characters, and even the outcome of the trial was believable. Though I did find some of the characters so stupid that even with their actions mirroring their character, I found myself having a weird cognitive dissonance.
Basically - I couldn't believe someone as willfully dumb as JoLynn actually could exist. Except there have been lots of well known instances of women just as dumb as her existing, and doing exactly what she'd do. So I was disbelieving a thing I knew to be true. Weird.
I noted no Deus Ex Machinas (though again, I did skim the back half of the book) and how the end crisis is resolved makes perfect sense for what was set up throughout the introductory pages.
7/10
🔸 Enjoyment🔸
Coming to the end of the review, I can safely say this is the best-written book that I absolutely hated (though that's a small list of candidates - Dante's Inferno (which lost me purely on basis of it being poetry) and Abduction being the only other competitors). For the die-hard fan of the thriller genre, you'll probably be able to push through to the end. For someone who loves to lap up the spilled tea of family drama, this is a gold-mine.
That's just not me. For me, this was a mass-market-paperback waste of a few hours. So into the donation bin it goes. Most enjoyment I had came from the physical copy being a decent-size print even for a mass-market book.
2/10
September 16, 2015
Puedo soportar una historia que no me guste, a menudo se aprende mucho de ellas, pero reconozco que mi nivel de tolerancia es muchísimo más bajo cuando se trata de los personajes. Si éstos no me agradan, es muy difícil para mí continuar leyendo. Aún así, fiel a mi costumbre de no dejar ningún libro inacabado (muy pocas veces lo he hecho), he conseguido finalizar esta historia de intriga.
No me ha gustado la protagonista, que para ser psicoterapeuta, parece más necesitada de terapia que sus pacientes y aparte de la relación con su madre, en la que demuestra cierta madurez (el tema del Alzheimer está contado con cierto rigor), su comportamiento con el resto de personas de su entorno es a menudo incomprensible, sobre todo con su hermana, a la que reprueba pero siempre acaba secundando con una permisividad sin fundamento.
Por supuesto no me ha gustado la hermana, todo un cliché que raya el ridículo o la caricatura, ni el asesino, que parecía no pintar nada ni desde luego hace nada que se corresponda con un supuesto convicto esperando la pena de muerte.
No se salvan ni la hija adolescente ni el marido atormentado, más clichés y tópicos.
No obstante, la novela se lee de un tirón y aunque resulta bastante previsible, se sigue con interés la trama hasta el desenlace final.
https://www.micaminoblanco.blogspot.c...
No me ha gustado la protagonista, que para ser psicoterapeuta, parece más necesitada de terapia que sus pacientes y aparte de la relación con su madre, en la que demuestra cierta madurez (el tema del Alzheimer está contado con cierto rigor), su comportamiento con el resto de personas de su entorno es a menudo incomprensible, sobre todo con su hermana, a la que reprueba pero siempre acaba secundando con una permisividad sin fundamento.
Por supuesto no me ha gustado la hermana, todo un cliché que raya el ridículo o la caricatura, ni el asesino, que parecía no pintar nada ni desde luego hace nada que se corresponda con un supuesto convicto esperando la pena de muerte.
No se salvan ni la hija adolescente ni el marido atormentado, más clichés y tópicos.
No obstante, la novela se lee de un tirón y aunque resulta bastante previsible, se sigue con interés la trama hasta el desenlace final.
https://www.micaminoblanco.blogspot.c...
December 13, 2014
This was the first book I've read by Joy Fielding and it was not what I expected. I thought I had picked up a serial killer murder-mystery. What I got was a book filled mostly with family drama- marriage issues, kid issues, sister issues and mom issues. That's a lot of issues! Fit in a serial killer here and there and you have the book. The last 15 pages was great! But, I had to read a whole lot of drama to get there. I have another book by this author but I'll be thinking twice before reading it.
February 16, 2011
This is the kind of book I don't enjoy but keep on reading. It makes you wonder about human nature - how someone can fall in love with a convicted murderer - but we know this really happens. As a therapist, Kate Sinclair seeks to heal other people's lives, while her own is falling apart. Rebellious teenage daughter, Alzheimer's, a passive husband, a possible love affair, a dysfunctional sister - the ending could only be what it was.
September 25, 2011
To me, this wasn't one of Joy Fielding's better books. Giving this 3 stars because her books usually grab me from the 1st page & this one clearly did not. I was close to 70 pages into it before it picked up for me. I had some of the things figured out halfway through the book and I hate that!! I'm hoping the next book of hers I read in the future will be much better. I do realize this book was one of her older works.
October 10, 2011
I really liked this book. It had me hooked right away, telling of a terrible occurrence without specifics. I was eager to know what had happened & to whom it had happened.
The characters were all interesting and I stayed curious to know more about each person as I continued to read this book.
I would love to say more, but I don't want to give anything away. I will say that I loved the references to the title "Missing Pieces," and the way it related to so many of the characters.
The characters were all interesting and I stayed curious to know more about each person as I continued to read this book.
I would love to say more, but I don't want to give anything away. I will say that I loved the references to the title "Missing Pieces," and the way it related to so many of the characters.
November 25, 2017
Auch wenn ich Joy Fielding eigentlich sehr liebe, muss ich leider sagen, dass "Am seidenen Faden", meiner Meinung nach, eines ihrer schlechtesten Bücher ist. Ich kann nicht mal sagen, woran es genau gelegen hat, aber ich fand irgendwie gar nichts so richtig gut. Es war einfach nur wirklich, wirklich langweilig, die Story hat mich an keiner Stelle wirklich mitgerissen, etwas, was ich von Joy Fielding überhaupt nicht gewohnt bin.
December 10, 2008
Good suspense, but irritating in that you want to yell at the characters for their stupid actions sometimes. Of course, that's the point: that the people drawn into these situations are too close to the problems to see what they should do. So instead of acting they are just reacting.
June 15, 2009
Easy read and I like the author's style. There were some parts of the story that I felt were glossed over, and the attitudes of most of the characters drove me insane...but the story kept me interested...especially the end!
December 11, 2013
I normally really like books by Joy Fielding but this book really fell flat for me. It really wasn't until the last few pages of the book that something kind of exciting happened. A book that was supposed to be my holiday read turned out to be quite a disappointing read.
November 7, 2016
This was written in 1997, but other than a few modern inventions (think cell phone) it was still readable. There was no big twist like modern books seem to need, but even though you were pretty sure where this was headed, it was still an interesting read.
January 1, 2010
Very good book. Couldn't put it down therefore I lost LOTS of sleep 2 nights in a row gggrrrrr oh well. I would rather read than sleep anyway.
July 15, 2018
Good read,but alittle too much verbiage In all her Discriptions. Good characters.
July 1, 2019
Kinda boring ... too much build up for such an anti climactic end
Displaying 1 - 30 of 208 reviews