Book Event Recap: Karin Slaughter at the Strand
PIECES OF HER | On-Sale August 21, 2018
Crime writing powerhouse Karin Slaughter has a brand-new book out this week: PIECES OF HER, a gripping story of a young woman who discovers that the person she thought she knew best in the world - her mom - isn’t at all who she believed her to be. On Monday, I had the incredible opportunity to join Karin in conversation at New York’s legendary Strand Bookstore to discuss PIECES OF HER! Interviewing Karin at the Strand was an absolute highlight of my Crime by the Book years thus far, and I’m so excited to share a recap of the event with you today. In this post, you’ll find a recap of the event, including a video of it (courtesy of the Strand’s YouTube!), a rundown of where you can catch Karin on tour for her newest book, and more information on PIECES OF HER!
EVENT RECAP: KARIN SLAUGHTER & CBTB
At Strand Bookstore
It’s no exaggeration to say that there are few authors I admire as much as I admire Karin Slaughter. By the numbers, she’s massively successful: she has been published in 37 languages, and more than 35 million copies of her books have been sold around the world. As if that weren't enough, she also has three novels currently in development for film and television. But beyond these (very impressive!) stats, there’s a confidence to her writing that has blown me away over and over again. I was a latecomer to Karin’s work - a fact that I now find shocking! - but the more exposure I’ve had to it, the more impressed I am. Her books are dark, violent, raw, astute, richly-developed—I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, they are good. She’s a truly original voice - and, on the lighter side of things, she’s also one of my favorite authors to follow on Instagram, thanks to her commitment to #Caturday posts.
Given my admiration for Karin’s work, you can imagine how thrilled I was to moderate her event at the Strand this week! There’s nothing quite like getting to sit down with an author and talk with them about their work—bonus points when the author is as hilarious and well-spoken as is Karin. I could have talked to her about her newest book, PIECES OF HER, for quite literally hours. In the time we did have together, we touched on everything from her story’s lead characters, to the ways PIECES OF HER marks a departure from her previous books, to the role of violence - particularly violence against women - in her work. Suffice it to say, I left the event even more in awe of Karin and the career she has built for herself than I was going into it—and that’s definitely saying something. Many thanks to Karin and her team for letting me participate in this event - it was a total dream to do so!
Without further ado: you can catch a video of the event, plus details on Karin's tour and information on her newest release, below!
About PIECES OF HER:
What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?
Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?
But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .
Grab your copy of PIECES OF HER here:
Home ownership feel like a distant dream? Zillow listings have you convinced you’ll be renting for the rest of your life? The woman at the heart of Carissa Orlando’s debut The September House feels your pain—and she’s prepared to put up with a lot if it means she and her husband can finally have a place to call their own. In this case, that might just mean living in a house that’s haunted. Playful and irreverent, spine-tingling and spooky, The September House puts a fresh spin on the classic haunted house story, delivering an immersive tale about the secrets lurking within one building’s walls, and within the lives of its inhabitants.