BOOK REVIEWS

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee

(Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com)  To her great dismay, reporter Camille gets an order from her editor:  go to Wind Gap, Missouri to cover some breaking news. A kid named Natalie is missing.  It reminds the editor of last year's unsolved murder in Wind Gap: a similar kid Ann. Is a serial killer at work?  The editor wants Camille to investigate because she grew up in Wind Gap.

Camille grudgingly leaves her barren apartment in Chicago, and drives to Wind Gap.  She wonders if her sanity will survive the trip.  She never visits Adora, her rich and extremely weird mother. Not since her sister Marian died.  Not even to get acquainted with her half-sister Amma who was born when she was in college.

In fact, Camille's horrific childhood created her deepest secret:  she's a cutter. Over the years, Camille has carved words into her skin, covering her entire body except for her face, the backs of her hands, and a circle of flesh on her back that she could never reach. (Adora promises to carve her own name there someday.)  Now Camille wears long sleeves, high necklines, and long pants regardless of the sweltering heat.

Back in Wind Gap, Camille shows up to stay with her resentful mother and bland stepfather.  Her half-sister Amma turns out to be a poisonous thirteen year-old: a full-figured girl who cuddles with their mom and plays with a dollhouse like a baby when she is home. Outside the house, Amma teases grown men on the streets, and pimps out her friends at parties. 

Not wanting to spend much time at home, Camille helps the townsfolk search for missing Natalie. But the girl turns up murdered exactly the way Ann was last year:  strangled, and with her teeth extracted. Camille's editor had good instincts: there is a serial killer on the loose.

Hitting the vodka constantly, Camille tries to investigate.  Did Natalie's handsome brother kill the girls?  Or perhaps someone from her mother's peer group of vicious gossipy housewives?  Did the girls deserve to die? Camille starts to wonder as she uncovers disturbing evidence that little Ann and Natalie were psychopaths. Then there is a little boy who swears he saw a ghostly woman lure Natalie into the woods.

If you're thinking that all this sounds like Tennessee Williams writing an episode of CSI, you're right.  Sharp Objects, an Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee, is a pitch-black mystery that lives up to its creepy cover art. It is also powerful and involving, and the identity of the murderer will surprise you!  You can find Sharp Objects on Amazon through this link:

Sharp Objects: A Novel

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