Last Breath {short story}

Last Breath by Karin Slaughter is a very highly recommended short novel that is a prequel to her upcoming novel, The Good Daughter. It also stands alone as an excellent story.

Charlie Quinn is a lawyer visiting a group of Girl Scouts for career night when she suddenly feels ill and runs to the bathroom where fifteen year-old honor student Flora Faulkner assists her. Afterwards, Flora asks for Charlie's help to become an emancipated minor. It seems that Flora's grandparents are spending all her trust money on themselves and there won't be anything left for Flora to attend college. How could Charlie refuse to help a girl who lost her mother, just as Charlie did. Soon it is clear that the case is much more complicated than it originally show more appeared.

What a wonderfully written, outstanding twisty tale. Charlie is a great character and Slaughter proves how accomplished she is at character development and setting the location, and doing so in an abbreviated number of pages. It was a pleasure to read Last Breath and only makes me more anxious to read The Good Daughter (released on 8/8/17). This prequel is set thirteen years before events in The Good Daughter.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Witness Impulse. show less

In this short story, we get to know Charlie, one of the main characters in The Good Daughter. I instantly liked her, and her nerdy husband Ben and of course, Charlie's father Rusty, a lawyer that had no problem representing vile criminals.

When Charlie was thirteen did her life change forever when two men broke into their home. Now, is she working as a lawyer herself and when a young girl called Flora Faulkner begs her to help her is she taken in by the girl's sad story. But, it turns out that not everything is at it seems.

I really liked this short story. Often when I read novellas that take place before or between books do they feel incomplete, like they would have needed to have more meat on their bones to really tell a story. But, show more Last Breath manages to both introduce Charlie and tell a story that is perfectly told without feeling like it would have needed more pages to flesh out the story. I enjoyed it very much and I was looking forward to reading The Good Daughter as soon as possible after finishing this novella!

PS. I just finished The Good Daugther and it was splendid as well! ;)

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! show less

Karin Slaughter is such a good writer! Last Breath does not disappoint.

Last Breath is about attorney Charlie Quinn, and her 15-year-old client, Flora (Florabama Faulkner - great name!!), who wants to be emancipated from her seemingly abusive grandparents that are misappropriating funds from Flora's trust fund. Flora and Charlie bond over having suffered the loss of their mothers under tragic circumstances.

The plot thickens when Flora, the honor student Girl Scout, is surprisingly arrested for trafficking drugs. As the story unfolds, the reader is on edge, waiting for each new reveal to solve the multiple mysteries spun in Last Breath.

This is a good one!

Review can also be found in https://chillandreadblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/last-breath-by-karin-slaughter...

“Last Breath” is the prequel to the “Good Daughter” series and it is strong enough reason to read the first book, “The Good Daughter”!

Charlie Quinn is a lawyer, just like her father. She has refused to move to the city and make big money because she wanted to be useful, something her late mother always requested from her. Charlie loved her mother very much. She lost her at the sensitive age of 13 to two men that broke into their house holding a grudge against her father. Being a lawyer is sometimes a dangerous job, but this is what Charlie wants to do.

When Flora Faulkner, a motherless teen enters her life, all she show more could possibly do is try to help the girl that reminds her so much of herself. They have both lost their mothers on an early age, witnessing their death. Therefore, there is more involved than just another client. Her story affects Charlie so much that it makes her hard to see through everything. Is Flora as pure and innocent as she seems?

This short length prequel by Karin Slaughter gives an insight on the main character of the series, Charlie Quinn. It is a real page turner for a short story! It is quick and sharp and unpredictable with lots of twists! The author really gives us a point of view of the human nature that is out there and found in the most unexpected places…

That said, “The Good Daughter” is expected to be a stunning book! show less

As prequals go, this was a great one. I also really liked that it was relatively short (I was worried since the book it prequals is pretty long). This is Charlie focused and I think it did a great job representing the characters that you already met in The Good Daughter, if you read that first like I did. I definitely think this is worth the time though it is not necessary at all. If you want to quick fit in another book to help reach you reading goals, if you have any, this would be a great one.

Great short story, prequel to the Good Daughter. Fast Pace, grabbed from the very start. How an innocent girl scout convinced a do good lawyer to blindly give her free advice! Perfect and pretty scary how easily the perfect can get you in your core!

I just realized this is a prequel to The Good Daughter, so I have added that to my 2025 TBR! This was a great novella. The amount of information and twists that Karin Slaughter worked into this story was impressive. Can't wait to see how this ties into The Good Daughter.