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Karin Slaughter: Short Story Collection
Five criminally good digital short stories from the number-one best-selling author of the Will Trent series.
"Cold Cold Heart": Pam is a 52-year-old teacher who has let herself go for the first time in her life. It's two years since her husband - ex husband - John died and she's heading from Georgia to California for the third and - she hopes - final time. But just what lies in store for her there?
"The Blessing of Brokenness": Mary Lou Dixon works at the Christ Holiness Baptist Church. She's overseeing the repair of the cross above the altar in time for Christmas when things start to go horribly wrong.
"The Truth About Pretty Girls": Forty-three-year-old Jude Hanson has returned home to Poulet and her mother - the Georgia mountain town she grew up in and the woman she hoped never to see again....
"Necessary Women": She was 14 when she watched mother die. With her mother gone, her father told her she had to be the woman of the house. And then he went away for six months. Now she's got a surprise for him....
"The Mean Time": It's a hot summer's day and 12-year-old Peanut and her cousins are being driven into town on the back of a trailer drawn by Uncle Toby in his tractor. It's Peanut's "mean time" age and she's about to do something she'll regret....
"Cold Cold Heart": Pam is a 52-year-old teacher who has let herself go for the first time in her life. It's two years since her husband - ex husband - John died and she's heading from Georgia to California for the third and - she hopes - final time. But just what lies in store for her there?
"The Blessing of Brokenness": Mary Lou Dixon works at the Christ Holiness Baptist Church. She's overseeing the repair of the cross above the altar in time for Christmas when things start to go horribly wrong.
"The Truth About Pretty Girls": Forty-three-year-old Jude Hanson has returned home to Poulet and her mother - the Georgia mountain town she grew up in and the woman she hoped never to see again....
"Necessary Women": She was 14 when she watched mother die. With her mother gone, her father told her she had to be the woman of the house. And then he went away for six months. Now she's got a surprise for him....
"The Mean Time": It's a hot summer's day and 12-year-old Peanut and her cousins are being driven into town on the back of a trailer drawn by Uncle Toby in his tractor. It's Peanut's "mean time" age and she's about to do something she'll regret....
3 pages, Audible Audio
First published May 30, 2013
4 people are currently reading
697 people want to read
About the author
Karin Slaughter
124 books88.1k followersKarin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty- five novels, including the Edgar nominated COP TOWN and standalone novels PRETTY GIRLS and FALSE WITNESS. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. PIECES OF HER, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. THE GOOD DAUGHTER will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 22, 2023
I love everything this author writes, therefore I was pumped the other day to stumble across this short book on BorrowBox while perusing the titles there. As always, I accessed this platform via my public library.
This mix of unusual short stories are based on a handful of women, experiencing some hectic things. There is murder and gore and abuse and negative stuff - so this will be a caution to readers who are adverse to this idea. In saying that, of course, those who know the author well will not be surprised by this.
American settings are always welcomed by me, so I appreciate the descriptions of harsh weather and equally challenged folk who are not always living the easiest of lives. Karin Slaughter can always be relied upon to well describe awful things.
Men behaving badly, and in particular in this set of short stories, one woman unafraid to end the life of one very close to her. Nothing was off limits here. The right to life (and what it is like when zealots find themselves on the other side of the coin - this was a good one), a callous father, a rightously vengeful ex wife. A sinful and wicked pastor.
The kindness of human nature balances this bleakness somehow. A kind man tending to a woman who has in mere minutes previously judged him harshly; the happiness in an intellectually disabled man after being treated poorly by someone who should know better.
I found this compilation to be twisty, original and most unexpected. Also a timely reminder to move along with the Grant County series as I'm excited to get to know Will Trent more!
A highly recommended quick read for Karin Slaughter fans, and those who are unafraid of a bit of a nutty and black-hearted read.
This mix of unusual short stories are based on a handful of women, experiencing some hectic things. There is murder and gore and abuse and negative stuff - so this will be a caution to readers who are adverse to this idea. In saying that, of course, those who know the author well will not be surprised by this.
American settings are always welcomed by me, so I appreciate the descriptions of harsh weather and equally challenged folk who are not always living the easiest of lives. Karin Slaughter can always be relied upon to well describe awful things.
Men behaving badly, and in particular in this set of short stories, one woman unafraid to end the life of one very close to her. Nothing was off limits here. The right to life (and what it is like when zealots find themselves on the other side of the coin - this was a good one), a callous father, a rightously vengeful ex wife. A sinful and wicked pastor.
The kindness of human nature balances this bleakness somehow. A kind man tending to a woman who has in mere minutes previously judged him harshly; the happiness in an intellectually disabled man after being treated poorly by someone who should know better.
I found this compilation to be twisty, original and most unexpected. Also a timely reminder to move along with the Grant County series as I'm excited to get to know Will Trent more!
A highly recommended quick read for Karin Slaughter fans, and those who are unafraid of a bit of a nutty and black-hearted read.
October 28, 2023
This collection of five audio short stories really packs a punch. Shannon Cochran’s narration is excellent.
In Cold Cold Heart, as Pam drives towards California, she recalls what she believed was a good marriage to John, turned upside down by the death of their teenaged son, Zack. While John became Jon and turned his grief into megabucks with a best-selling tell-all memoir-self-help book, he betrayed her at the same time, depicting her as cold-hearted, cold in every way. Why she responded to his death-bed summons, she’s not sure, but it did give her an opportunity for symbolic revenge: an excellent final twist.
In The Blessing Of Brokenness, as Mary Lou Dixon, an employee of the Christ Holiness Church, sits in the church overseeing a repair crew, she muses on the downward slide her life has taken over the last year and thinks about her Uncle Buell’s Bible Teaching: ‘Only Jesus can put you back together once you’ve been broken by sin,’ Buell had preached. ‘And that part of you that is broken becomes all the stronger for it.’ Quite a different man from Pastor Stephen Riddell, her boss, and the architect of her current problems. Slaughter very effectively portrays Mary Lou’s feelings: defeat, dejection, despair, anger, worthlessness and hopelessness. Yet, at the end, there is also kindness, the surprising kindness that crew foreman Jasper Goode shows her which undermines her initial mistrust of him. A powerful read.
In The Truth About Pretty Girls, fifty-six-year-old Jude Hanson finds herself almost incredulous about her current situation: after a life seemingly in self-destruct mode, she is back in her childhood home in the Georgia mountain town of Poulet with the mother she couldn’t wait to leave; she is driving to the bus station to pick up the son she hasn’t seen in thirty-six years, the son she should never have had…… This short but powerful offering from Karin Slaughter touches on a myriad of subjects: mothering instinct (or lack of it); ageing, menopause, health and mortality; therapy; privilege and potential. Slaughter creates a moving short story with a deliciously ironic ending.
Necessary Women is a very black tale featuring a young woman whose mother has recently died. Her father explains that she will have to be the woman of the house. But she has seen the misery of her mother‘s life and does not intend to repeat it.
In The Mean Time, a twelve-year-old city girl and her sisters, daughters of a successful college-educated upper middle-class accountant, spend the holidays in the mountains with his extensive family, struggling white mountain folk. As their affectionate Uncle Toby drives his thirteen nieces and nephews to the store for cokes and candy, she realises for the first time that his friendliness is partially the product of a simple mind; he’s intellectually slow, an old retarded man. Unlike her country cousins, she and her sisters are spoilt rotten and, at twelve, she’s “a walking box of hate and hormones, this was my mean time” She makes a hurtful remark to him, heard by everyone and, to her shame, learns what real charity means.
In Cold Cold Heart, as Pam drives towards California, she recalls what she believed was a good marriage to John, turned upside down by the death of their teenaged son, Zack. While John became Jon and turned his grief into megabucks with a best-selling tell-all memoir-self-help book, he betrayed her at the same time, depicting her as cold-hearted, cold in every way. Why she responded to his death-bed summons, she’s not sure, but it did give her an opportunity for symbolic revenge: an excellent final twist.
In The Blessing Of Brokenness, as Mary Lou Dixon, an employee of the Christ Holiness Church, sits in the church overseeing a repair crew, she muses on the downward slide her life has taken over the last year and thinks about her Uncle Buell’s Bible Teaching: ‘Only Jesus can put you back together once you’ve been broken by sin,’ Buell had preached. ‘And that part of you that is broken becomes all the stronger for it.’ Quite a different man from Pastor Stephen Riddell, her boss, and the architect of her current problems. Slaughter very effectively portrays Mary Lou’s feelings: defeat, dejection, despair, anger, worthlessness and hopelessness. Yet, at the end, there is also kindness, the surprising kindness that crew foreman Jasper Goode shows her which undermines her initial mistrust of him. A powerful read.
In The Truth About Pretty Girls, fifty-six-year-old Jude Hanson finds herself almost incredulous about her current situation: after a life seemingly in self-destruct mode, she is back in her childhood home in the Georgia mountain town of Poulet with the mother she couldn’t wait to leave; she is driving to the bus station to pick up the son she hasn’t seen in thirty-six years, the son she should never have had…… This short but powerful offering from Karin Slaughter touches on a myriad of subjects: mothering instinct (or lack of it); ageing, menopause, health and mortality; therapy; privilege and potential. Slaughter creates a moving short story with a deliciously ironic ending.
Necessary Women is a very black tale featuring a young woman whose mother has recently died. Her father explains that she will have to be the woman of the house. But she has seen the misery of her mother‘s life and does not intend to repeat it.
In The Mean Time, a twelve-year-old city girl and her sisters, daughters of a successful college-educated upper middle-class accountant, spend the holidays in the mountains with his extensive family, struggling white mountain folk. As their affectionate Uncle Toby drives his thirteen nieces and nephews to the store for cokes and candy, she realises for the first time that his friendliness is partially the product of a simple mind; he’s intellectually slow, an old retarded man. Unlike her country cousins, she and her sisters are spoilt rotten and, at twelve, she’s “a walking box of hate and hormones, this was my mean time” She makes a hurtful remark to him, heard by everyone and, to her shame, learns what real charity means.
October 21, 2020
Meh. Not really sure what the point was?
July 13, 2019
AUDIO. Karin Slaughter is one twisted sister. These short stories are very dark and a couple of them are downright disturbing. They are very different and it doesn’t seem right to admit that I enjoyed them, but I did. It’s fiction, right?
February 23, 2023
**1/2
An okay short audiobook.
It seems like an advisory book for women across all ages and sprinkled with religious connections often related to sin, divorce and regrets and poor examples of men, and some good ones.
Somewhat dark and a dash of gruesome and an insight into a variety of lives and relationships and stories to learn about life from..
An okay short audiobook.
It seems like an advisory book for women across all ages and sprinkled with religious connections often related to sin, divorce and regrets and poor examples of men, and some good ones.
Somewhat dark and a dash of gruesome and an insight into a variety of lives and relationships and stories to learn about life from..
October 22, 2025
3.6⭐️ rounded up
Cold Cold Heart: 5 ⭐️
The Blessing of Brokenness: 3 ⭐️
The Truth About Pretty Girls: 4⭐️
Necessary Women: 2⭐️
The Mean Time: 4⭐️
I really liked the dark humour in the first story but the rest just didn't hit like Slaughter usually does for me.
Cold Cold Heart: 5 ⭐️
The Blessing of Brokenness: 3 ⭐️
The Truth About Pretty Girls: 4⭐️
Necessary Women: 2⭐️
The Mean Time: 4⭐️
I really liked the dark humour in the first story but the rest just didn't hit like Slaughter usually does for me.
November 16, 2020
Meh! One of the few Karin Slaughter books I didn't enjoy. She should stick to full novels. I listened to the audio book, the narrator was awful which probably added to my disappointment in this book
August 4, 2022
The Mean Time - 3 stars. Nothing really happened.
November 26, 2024
Couldn't even finish listening to it.stories were meh I've listened and read better won't bother again
March 25, 2024
Quite an odd mix of short stories to put into a collection. Didn't love any of them but they were all intriguing to some degree.
December 22, 2024
(AB) A collection of 5 criminally good shorts stories. Or so the blurb reads. Unfortunately, nothing criminal really happens in any of the stories. There are no crimes to speak of nor investigations never mind a "whodunnit?". This is a collection of stories about 5 women (although it could even have been one woman) at different stages of life. Not awful but not exactly enthralling either.
November 2, 2025
*2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews