Missing Pieces

Rating:
Summary: Good for reading on a plane
Review: Although this story was a tad implausible, it held my interest. Psychiatrist Kate Sinclair is a master at helping strangers straighten out their issues, but she has quite a few on her plate. She is also untrustworthy. I didn't like Kate at all. Kate is yet another loathsome female protagonist - to wit, we have Gail, who was truly loathsome from "Life Penalties" and Jess of "Tell Me No Secrets" and Nicole of "The Other Woman" infamy.

Her half sister, JoLynn has taken up with a murderer. Her older daughter Sara goes through the worst of adolescence and bratty younger daughter Michelle is a favored, pampered little queen. (I didn't like Michelle). I felt Kate was unfair to Sara and I didn't like the way she just took it for granted that Sara would go along with her [Kate's] just taking her room to install her terminally ill mother. Poor Sara must have felt displaced. I also hated it when she slapped Sara. I was glad Sara hit her back! It was unfair of her to threaten to throw Sara out if she ever struck Sara again. I wish snotty Michelle had been slapped. She was phony and two-faced and every bit as loathsome as Kate. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when nasty Michelle took up smoking (a singularly VILE vice) and Kate wised up to the kind of obnoxious liar Michelle really was. Kate was singularly odious.

I had trouble with JoLynn's murderous lover. Instead of a cliche ending, the lover steals JoLynn's Toyota Camry and kills her. That made for a tragic ending, yet it was good this book did not become yet another cliche. It was "tolerable" in spite of Kate and Michelle.

Rating:
Summary: joy fielding is the best author ever.
Review: I enjoyed this book. I had some problems with Kate. Like the tailor's children who run around naked, psychiatrist Kate seems oblivious to the problems she causes for herself and others.

Kate's husband Larry is a gentle, self-effacing man who lets her ride roughshod all over him. I didn't like the way Kate tried to pick a fight with him over nothing. She said their daughter Sara's teacher called and when Larry understandably wanted to know what she [the teacher] had to say, Kate lambastes him for assuming the teacher is a woman. Turns out the teacher is female and Kate does not let up on Larry for the rest of the evening. She is a shrew and an impossible plague. Larry wisely did not take her bait. He was an adult to her tantrumming child.

Michelle is a phony. I hate her. I hated the way Kate played favorites and treated Sara like Cinderella. She moves her mother into Sara's room, beats Sara instead of telling her that she knows Sara sneaked off to her aunt's wedding and waves Michelle in her face like a funky flag. Michelle is a goody 2 shoes and a phony creep. I hate her. Too bad Kate didn't catch onto her sooner. Michelle is about as trustworthy as a fox in a chicken house or a truck full of rats. She's devious and has a heart of stone and is always calculating some way to worm her way into somebody's heart and use them to her advantage. Michelle should be flushed away. Sara is a rebel, but that is part of her age. She is railing against the favoritism shown to stinky Michelle and she feels her aunt is the only person who cares about her. I didn't care much for Kate, but she was OK when she acted like an adult from time to time instead of trying to pick arguments with people.

Rating:
Summary: All the characters were so lame.
Review: I found this book to be unbelievably ridiculous. Kate Sinclair is a family therapist but she is unable to handle her own family's problems. I disagree with the other reviewers who say she is stupid. I think Kate's sister, Jo Lynn, is stupid!! Kate totally does not have any common sense and she is weak, whines and is a total pessimist. She lets Jo Lynn and her teenage daughter, Sara, walk all over her. Kate over-analyzes everything, but she is unable to take any ACTION! She lacks control of her family. Thank goodness for her sweet, levelheaded younger daughter, Michelle. Kate, however, had incredible patience with her mother while her mother was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. And what about that lame husband?? He was good for nothing, basically. Talk about passive. I did not feel that there was that much in this book which involved the serial rapist/killer, Colin Friendly, and I thought that was the basis of this book. My mistake, I guess. The depressing tone of this book grew tiresome very quickly. I recommend that you read one of Joy Fielding's other books. This one missed the mark by far.

Rating:
Summary: joy fielding is the best author ever.
Review: I just discovered her a few weeks ago at a local book store just happened across her books. I bought "don't cry now" and "see jane run" and I couldn't put them down "missing pieces" is equally as good as all her other books I have now read I just have to know whats gonna happen even if I lose sleep in the process. She sure can write great suspense novels.

Rating:
Summary: excellent read
Review: I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. Held my attention to the very end. Sure, the lead character is a therapist, but she is also human. What happened to her family could happen to anyone's family. Her sister is a real loose cannon that was just looking for trouble from day one. The climatic ending didn't dissapoint. I feel you won't be dissapointed either. If you have read Joy Fielding before, you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant diversion from serious reading
Review: Missing Pieces is a light and predictable suspense novel. The characters are mostly stereotypes. We have Kate, the family therapist, whose own family is falling apart and who is considering an affair with an old high school flame. She has two teenage daughters, one rebellious and one "perfect", and a withdrawn husband. Add her wayward sister, Jo Lynn, and her aging mother, and you have one of the typical prototypes of a book family.

The novel starts as Jo Lynn, who's been married several times to abusive men, decides she wants to marry a man on trial for the murder of thirteen women. She decides to marry him after seeing his picture in the paper and deciding he was good-looking. To Kate's dismay, Jo Lynn also manages to drag Kate's rebellious daughter into the situation. At the same time, Kate's mother starts showing signs of Alzheimer's disease and Kate has to deal with that with no help from Jo Lynn and little help from her distant husband. Kate's old boyfriend also shows up in town and starts making advances.

There are several little character interactions that keep the book going. Kate's got a lot on her mind, so the book doesn't spend a lot of time on one problem before looking at a different problem. The characters, though stereotypical, are three-dimensional and interesting. The plot line isn't outstanding but it isn't bad either. Everything leads up to a predictable (and satisfying) conclusion.

I would recommend this book to someone who didn't want to read anything heavy, just something light that they wouldn't have to think about after finishing it.

Rating:
Summary: Missing Plot
Review: Missing Pieces Joy Fielding
(pg 420 Florida Mystery)

I recently rediscovered this author after bypassing her on the shelves. In the past I read "See Jane Run" and highly recommend it to all I talk books to. I then read her latest `
Whispers and Lies" another mind tingling read. This book leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The main character is a family therapist and it seems Fielding has given her the most dysfunctional family in the world. Kate has a mother who is either losing her mind
or plotting to kill her neighbors in the senior citizen complex. Her sister Jo Lynn who has airhead down to an art, opens the morning paper and decides her true love is the serial
killer on trail for killing nine woman. While we are at it, throw in a perfect daughter who worships her mother like an idol, the out of control teenager who has no feelings for anyone but herself and the husband who hovers on the sidelines. With all this going on, the plot is lame and the ending did nothing to support the story. Every great author has a bad day and I hope this is Fielding's. I have her many great things about this author and will give her another chance. Rating 7

Rating:
Summary: Missing Plot
Review: Missing Pieces Joy Fielding
(pg 420 Florida Mystery)

I recently rediscovered this author after bypassing her on the shelves. In the past I read "See Jane Run" and highly recommend it to all I talk books to. I then read her latest '
Whispers and Lies" another mind tingling read. This book leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The main character is a family therapist and it seems Fielding has given her the most dysfunctional family in the world. Kate has a mother who is either losing her mind
or plotting to kill her neighbors in the senior citizen complex. Her sister Jo Lynn who has airhead down to an art, opens the morning paper and decides her true love is the serial
killer on trail for killing nine woman. While we are at it, throw in a perfect daughter who worships her mother like an idol, the out of control teenager who has no feelings for anyone but herself and the husband who hovers on the sidelines. With all this going on, the plot is lame and the ending did nothing to support the story. Every great author has a bad day and I hope this is Fielding's. I have her many great things about this author and will give her another chance. Rating 7

Rating:
Summary: Love and the serial killer.
Review: The premise for this book is so absurd I can hardly believe there was a story to go with it. After reading Fielding's 5 star GRAND AVENUE, I wanted to read everything she has written.

Kate's sister JoLynn opens the paper one morning and decides she will fall in love and marry the serial killer who's handsome picture is plastered all over the front page. His trial is moving along and JoLynn decides to meet with him to give him her support.

The rest is totally absurd with little merit. I find it hard to believe the same author wrote both of these books. The one redeeming aspect is that this author excels at creating living, breathing, characters, even the ones that behave in the most unbelievable manner. Kelsana 4/23/02

Rating:
Summary: Wild..Crazy..
Review: What in the world was the sister in this book thinking?!? The stuff this woman had to go thru with her family is unreal. Great book!