Missing Pieces

How far will a mother go to protect her family from a madman?

An unrivaled master of psychological suspense, Joy Fielding has written her most chilling and intricate novel yet—a compulsively readable look at the razor-thin line between daily domesticity and nerve-shattering terror.

It had to end in blood.  Family therapist Kate Sinclair, healer of lost souls, perfect wife and mother, has suddenly become trapped in a nightmare of her own.  Her teenage daughter has just discovered sex, lies, and rebellion.  Her ex-boyfriend has returned to threaten her marriage.  Her once-peaceful hometown is being awakened by chilling headlines: Another woman is missing.  Kate can sense the darkness gathering around her, can see the mistakes, the missteps, the missing pieces.  She is afraid of what tomorrow will bring.

Enter Colin Friendly, a man on trial for abducting and killing thirteen women—the handsome, "misunderstood" sociopath Kate's troubled sister plans to marry.  Colin loves women to death.  He can't wait to see Kate and the girls again.  One dark night when they are home alone, disarmed, ready for bed...

In a small article on page three, the Palm Beach Post reports the incident with little or no concern. A woman of 54 has gone missing. She was last seen by her neighbor. The Post would have you believe that there is nothing out of the ordinary to be concerned about, and that in fact, the woman has had a history of mental problems.

But Kate Sinclair takes notice. She knows that more than "two dozen women have disappeared from the Palm Beach area in the last five years." She's been keeping track, "not consciously, at least not at first, but after a while their numbers just started adding up, and a vague figure affixed itself to [her] conscious mind."

So begins Missing Pieces, Joy Fielding's latest novel of domestic horrors. No successful female, healthy and stable marriage, wholesome family, or beautiful home is safe from the machinations of Fielding's criminals. Her felons prey on the safety and security that we all take for granted in the average family home.

The voice in this suspense thriller is that of family therapist Kate Sinclair, who is better known in Palm Beach for repairing other people's troubled lives. But in Missing Pieces, it looks as though her own life could use a little patching. We know from the onset that this story is reflective and that something terrible has recently taken place in her life. That something had her mother fearing she was being followed; had her rebellious daughter acting up; left her marriage in shambles.... But she begins with her recount of the morning that her sister -- with a history of promiscuity and abusive husbands -- calmly announced that she planned to marry the very same Colin Friendly on trial for the serial rape, murder, and dismemberment of more than a dozen local women.

Publishers Weekly

Practical Kate Sinclair, 47, a family therapist married for 24 years and the mother of two teenaged daughters, is losing control of her orderly, settled life. She fights with her rebellious elder daughter, Sara, who's 17. Her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Even her body is betraying her, as hot flashes startle her metabolism. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with an old high-school sweetheart inflames her in a totally different way. Worst of all, though, is the infatuation of her sexy half-sister, Jo Lynn, with a man on trial for the murder of 13 women. Fielding's leisurely paced latest tale (after Don't Cry Now) of psychological suspense, written in no-frills prose and set in Florida's Palm Beach Gardens, follows Kate as she watches in horror her sister's growing involvement with Colin Friendly, sociopath and sexual sadist. Trying to protect her sister in some vague way, Kate accompanies Jo Lynn on her lovestruck daily excursions to court. Though the sisters' relationship strains credulity at times, an unexpected yet believable revelation about Jo Lynn's past explains the self-destructive behavior that has led her through three abusive marriages and into a relationship with a serial killer who eventually targets Kate's family for his particular malice. Prosaic courtroom and therapy scenes and simplistically portrayed secondary figures weigh down the storytelling, but Kates's honest, strong narration is up to the task of driving this novel of a family in turmoil to its bloody if redeeming resolution. 175,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; author tour. (Aug.)

Joy Fielding is the author of Don't Cry Now, Tell Me No Secrets, See Jane Run, Good Intentions, The Deep End, Life Penalty, The Other Woman, Kiss Mommy Goodbye, Trance, The Transformation, and The Best of Friends.  A graduate of the University of Toronto, she lives with her family in Toronto and Palm Beach.