What an excellent story with so many layers...sisters, husbands, fathers, mothers...tragedy that changes lives forever but somehow people get through it to live productive happy lives. Well written.
I happened to pick this book up at a thrift store after reading Slaughter's novel PRETTY GIRLS, a very horrific story of murder and abuse toward women. THE GOOD DAUGHTER tells the story of two sisters, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn (Charlie and Sam), who were part of a vicious attack on their family when they were young. Their mother was murdered, Sam was shot, and Charlie was viciously attacked. The novel tells of this horrific event from both Charlie's and Sam's point of view. Then twenty-eight years later, Charlie is on-site during a school shooting that leaves a school principal and a young girl dead. Rusty Quinn, the father of Charlie and Sam, is a notorious defense attorney in the small town of Pikesville, Georgia, who is not liked by most of the community. Was he the reason for the attack on the family 28 years ago? And when he wants to defend the young woman accused of the school shooting, it adds to the animosity of the town towards him.
This was really a compelling read as Slaughter tells the story of the tragedy that befell the two Quinn sisters. The novel delves into the family dynamics of the Quinns as well as life in small town Georgia with all of the prejudices that reside there. There were some twists to the story that I didn't see coming related to the school shooting as well as what really happened to the two girls and who was involved. I would definitely recommend this one although I did feel at over 600 pages, it was a little longer than it needed to be. I will be looking forward to reading more of Slaughter.
