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    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes

    By Karin Slaughter

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A gripping short story from the New York Times bestselling author of Pieces of Her.

    A beautiful young girl was walking down the street―when suddenly…

    Julia Carroll knows that too many stories start that way. Beautiful, intelligent, a nineteen-year-old college freshman, she should be carefree. But instead she is frightened. Because girls are disappearing.

    A fellow student, Beatrice Oliver, is missing. A homeless woman called Mona-No-Name is missing. Both taken off the street. Both gone without a trace.

    Julia is determined to find out the reasons behind their disappearances. And she doesn't want to be next…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 18, 2015
    ISBN9780062442819
    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
    Author

    Karin Slaughter

    Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the author of more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and standalone novels The Good Daughter and Pretty Girls. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is a #1 Netflix original series, Will Trent is a television series starring Ramón Rodríguez on ABC, and further projects are in development for television. 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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    Reviews for Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes

    4/5

    905 ratings81 reviews

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    • 4/5
      If you have read or plan to read Pretty Girls, you will definitely want to read this novella! It will answer some of your questions about Julia, although not all of them. That's why I gave it four stars instead of five. I was expecting more answers and details.
    • 3/5
      Julia Carroll is a 19 year old college student who has a nice boyfriend, volunteers at the homeless shelter and works on her school newspaper. News about missing women - all blonde and beautiful just like Julia - pique her interest. Julia pitches her story about missing women to the paper and the editor gives her a shot at writing an article that will be featured on the first page. But before she finishes her story, Julia becomes the next victim.
    • 2/5
      This one didn't wow me. I knew where it was going pretty much at the beginning but I found it a little slow. I didn't realize it leads into Pretty Girls, I will give that one a whirl since it sounds pretty good and sometimes short stories are too short to get you hooked in.
    • 5/5
      The fear is imminent , the facts are overwhelming and still it all happened so easily.
    • 4/5
      Ahhh I want to rate this a little higher but there is just too much gratuitous gore and sexual violence for me to bump it up more. It is certainly thrilling, and for once I wasn't screaming at the characters to make better choices. The villain is demonically evil, and the ending is satisfying. It's really long for a thriller though, and I don't feel like the characters are developed enough to warrant the length.
    • 5/5
      If you haven’t tried any Karin Slaughter books yet, this is the one to read first! This book was so well written and her ability to develop characters is astonishing! This is one of her standalone books. Next start with the Grount County Series!

      You will be addicted to her books!
    • 5/5
      Pretty Girls by Karin SlaughterClaire and Lydia's Sister (Julia) goes missing almost twenty four years ago. Although estranged from each other dire circumstance brings together the Siblings as they search for answers. Lives are in danger and things are not as they seem as they get close to the shocking truth.Moving at a steady pace told form multiple points of view, I was pulled deep into this broken family. Secrets slowly revealed left me in shock as I dove deep into the intense, suspenseful chilling story. Karin Slaughter knows how to grab your attention and not let go. I highly recommend Pretty Girls to those who enjoy (domestic) thrillers.
    • 3/5
      Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes is a short-story introducing us to Julia, a pretty and self-absorbed college student in Athens, Georgia. She selects a mission persons case for her college paper and while doing the research, she learns of 18 similar abductions. All the girls are described as "pretty". From the book: "All those pretty girls. Taken, or being kept. Or their bodies hadn't been found." I wish I could say I liked Julia, but I didn't. She was so shallow and obsessive about her "non" problems, as if the world revolved around her. Yes, a lot of 19 year old kids think they are put upon and invincible, but realistic as it is, I still don't enjoy reading about them. This short story was more of a teaser for Slaughter's upcoming novel, Pretty Girls, which picks up the story twenty years later. It was interesting to get the back story on Julia for the Pretty Girls novel, which I've heard great things about. Just waiting on my library hold!
    • 5/5
      This is the first book I have read by this author. Although it is a bit gruesome in places, I couldn't put it down.
    • 4/5
      When Claire's husband is murdered her whole life turns upside down. She slowly learns who her husband really was and how he is intertwined with the worst day of her life. Reunited with her sister, they face life and death situations and pray they come out on the other side. The number of surprises in this book kept it very interesting and I flew through it.
    • 1/5
      This book was so bad I was mad at myself for reading it
    • 4/5
      I am not a mystery reader really so I did not know what to expect going into this except that I had heard that this is a very intense book. That is absolutely correct. This book is dark and gory and at times it's hard to keep going in the story. I am not the type of person to be that frightened by books so I wouldn't say I was scared exactly but I did only read this in bit sized chunks because it could be so dark.

      I definitely liked this book. I liked how we had a complicated relationship with all the characters. I found this book to be kind of unrealistic but also not so much that I could not buy into the story. I think even if this particular story is a bit unrealistic, many of us will have experienced a time where we weren't sure who we could trust, including authority figures or others we thought we could trust implicitly. I thought the relationships between all that characters were so dynamic and well fleshed out. The complicated family dynamic is really well written and a very honest portrayal of how families deal with loss and how they can grow apart.

      I really appreciated the setting of this book as it takes place in Athens and outside of Atlanta. I almost went to the University of Georgia and I've been to Athens many times and I live in Atlanta and was able to have a very clear picture of the settings though I think even if you have never been to Atlanta, the setting is very well described. Some of the characters went to Auburn University for college which is where my moms whole family went and is another place I've been many times. This is obviously not necessary to enjoy this book but was some added fun for me.

      Frankly, I am still not much a mystery reader and I don't know how many books like this one I am going to pick up in the future but I did appreciate the craft of this book and I'm glad I read it.
    • 4/5
      This is my first book my Karin Slaughter. Are all her books this long? Felt like it went on forever in certain parts. Don't get me wrong, I love long books. I just feel that sometimes this one went on in places it didn't need to. I did enjoy the story and I look forward to reading another one of her books.
    • 5/5
      By far the goriest book I have ever read, but it was so compelling and had me on the edge of my seat.
    • 3/5
      Way way too graphic torture and violence marred a fairly decent plot.
    • 4/5
      Pretty Girls was downright disturbing and difficult to get through. The story was good but the scenes of torture were jarring and hard to listen to.
    • 5/5
      I listened to the audiobook. May not be for some as there is pleanty of rought language, and rough subject matter. However this is one of the best descriptions of a sociopath that I have ever heard. As the story unfolds and all the layers the sociopath has created and the depths of cruelty that he goes to even tho the story is not true I am very sure there are many out there that are just like him. I hope when people read this it opens their eyes to the fact that they live among us they are adept at hiding and they are very cruel. We need to stamp out the dark porn that this book alludes to and the customers that want to watch it.
    • 2/5
      Folks really like this book but honestly I am not sure why. I wanted it to be smarter, to make more sense. I didn't find anyone in it believable and it was just dark for the sake of being dark. Could have been soooo much better if the characters acted in a more realistic way instead of just being convenient for the plot twists.
    • 5/5
      I've never read anything like this before. It was seriously one twist after another. Loved it SO MUCH.

      Bad ass of the year: Claire Carroll Scott. GahDAMN, girl.
    • 4/5
      This book was gruesome and graphic, moreso than I typically want to read about... but I couldn't put it down. Every time I stopped reading, I just wanted to pick it up again and find out what happened. It's my first Karin Slaughter book, and I will be checking out other titles by her (cautiously!).
    • 4/5
      Definitely not the most delicate of stories. Julia Carroll a 19 year old college student who goes missing and how the tragedy affects her 2 younger sisters and her parents. 24 years later, another family tragedy brings the sisters back together after not seeing each other for years. Together they discover many secrets and search to find their sister and answer all the questions that have haunted them. It amazes me how an awful story can keep me listening! As much as I hated the entire story line, I listened, and stopped the book and turning it back on. I re-listened on the edge of my seat until it finally was finished. I hope none of this is possibly happening in real life, but then again... terrible people exist and the dark side of the internet is definitely out there. Included this this Audible Book is "Blond Hair,Blue Eyes" Described as a Chilling Short Story by the author - but actually -it is a prelude story of this book introducing the missing girl Julia Carroll
    • 5/5
      Depending on what part of the country you rest your head, (sooner or later) get prepared with a tantalizing prequel BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES by the southern queen of international crime fiction, Karin Slaughter! Get a glimpse of the upcoming ride of your life, setting the stage for her latest new standalone, PRETTY GIRLS. Slaughter is on fire!Being a huge Karin Slaughter fan, (also a Georgia gal), I anxiously await every book she cranks out. Trust me when I say PRETTY GIRLS, is definitely one you will not want to miss – making my Top Book List for 2015.I happened to be fortunate enough to listen to the audiobook, PRETTY GIRLS, prior to learning there was a prequel; could not hit purchase audiobook, fast enough, when learning of BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES. Now, if you want a match made in heaven, buy the audiobook, ; Kathleen Early, narrator, and Karin Slaughter are in perfect sync – "what a delivery"!In PRETTY GIRLS, we learn of three sisters, one of them missing and two of them estranged — and the special bonds that unite them. The Carrolls, an ordinary Southern Georgia family, has suffered grief, loss, and tragedy. Twenty-four years ago, a traumatic disappearance of a daughter, a sister; Julia----an experience ultimately changing the course of each member of the family. Her body has never been found.In BLONDE HAIR BLUE EYES, (love short stories) –a great introduction and backstory of Julia. Readers learn of events of Julia Carroll, a nineteen-year-old attractive blonde hair, blue eyes student of journalism attending the University of Georgia, in Athens. She is obsessed with a report of a fellow college student, (similar in age, hair color, eyes, and looks). She has been missing for five weeks. Beatrice Oliver, is missing and a homeless woman-both taken off the street; gone without a trace. Julia, a features' writer for the college campus newspaper, wants to write a story about the abduction and delve further into the events leading up the tragedy. As always, the suspense, drama, and the intensity is high, keeping you hanging for more about these beautiful girls, and what psycho has in store. Read both – Well done! 5 Stars for both.BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES . . . Gentlemen really do prefer blondes . . According to new research, the average American male would describe their 'perfect woman' as having blonde hair, blue eyes and - perhaps surprisingly - a graduate degree, per a recent survey by WhatsYourPrice.com.The BHBE trait, could be a misfortune; high on stalker/serial-killer radar!Sounds as though we will get a new Will Trent series, coming soon, “The Kept Woman”. Cannot wait!
    • 4/5
      Great thriller - one I couldn't put down until I finished. Started this on audio and then went to hardcover because the story was intriguing and so suspenseful that I didn't want to put it down until I knew how it all ended. Too sexually violent for what I normally like to read, so reader beware. Second Karen Slaughter book I've read - she weaves a great tale.
    • 3/5
      Warning: Karen Slaughter’s 2015 crime thriller Pretty Girls is not for readers who have weak stomachs or especially vivid imaginations. In fact, this one, with its graphic depictions of bondage and torture, makes the typical Stephen King horror novel read like something from the pen of Jane Austen. Two decades ago, three sisters, the eldest of them nineteen years old, were part of a close-knit Southern family. Julia was a college freshman living away from home for the first time in her life, and her younger sisters, Lydia and Claire, were still at home with their parents. The girls were growing up, and although their parents were not thrilled about that prospect, their future seemed to be a bright one. But everything changed on the night that Julia disappeared while making the short walk back to her dormitory room from a local bar. Julia was never found or heard from again, and her family came apart at the seams. Lydia and Claire barely acknowledge the existence of the other now and have not spoken for at least twenty years. It is like Julia’s abductor killed the whole family – because he did.Today, Lydia is a single parent raising a sixteen-year-old daughter of her own and dating the ex-con who lives next door. Claire, on the other hand, is married to a multi-millionaire architect and living the good life in Atlanta. Their worlds and their lives could not be more different. But worlds have a way of colliding, and theirs are about to do exactly that. It is only after Claire suffers a tragedy of her own that she discovers that the life she has been living for the last two decades has been nothing but an illusion. Everywhere she looks, she learns more of the shocking truth – and when the cops and the FBI start threatening her, Claire realizes she can trust no one with what she has learned; she is on her own. And then Lydia knocks on Claire’s front door and refuses to leave. This is the point in the book where squeamish readers may start second-guessing their desire to continue reading Pretty Girls. Claire soon discovers exactly what happened to her sister all those years ago, and that it also happened to a lot of other girls who looked a whole lot like Julia. What Julia suffered is disturbing on its face, but the graphic details of torture, bondage, and humiliation described by Slaughter bring Pretty Girls to a level of horror that few thrillers of this type even attempt – and this is a long book. Just be warned. While I can admire Slaughter’s writing and story-telling skills, I don’t feel right in saying that I “enjoyed” this one or that it “entertained” me. If it had not been an audiobook that I started while on a road trip, I’m not sure that I would have even finished it. But it was one hell of a ride, and I won’t soon forget it – hard as I may try.
    • 4/5
      Wow, this book was a crazy ride. So much happens. Claire's husband, Paul, is murdered right in front of her. She soon starts finding out secrets about her husband that he has kept hidden for years. The deeper she digs, the more secrets she finds.

      This book has a crazy amount of WTF?! moments. Every new twist had me thinking how unbelievable everything was. At the same time, I was absolutely intrigued and did not want to stop reading. The story was amazing and so well written. I just loved it.

      There is some very graphic violence in this book. I was a little surprised by how graphic. Even with the violence, I really enjoyed this book.
    • 4/5
      Well now, that was disturbing. This is the kind of book that I would never, could never, watch if it were a movie. ?
    • 5/5
      When Julia Scott disappeared at nineteen years of age, the family was destroyed. Mum Helen, Dad Sam and sisters Lydia and Claire’s lives were changed the instant Julia didn’t return home. Sam never gave up looking for her and eventually commits suicide, Lydia became a drug addict, Helen divorced Sam and remarried, and Claire married a man who became a millionaire, who ended up not to be what she thought he was.

      Lydia’s life was a constant struggle to survive. As a single mother to seventeen year old Dee, an ex-criminal, Rick, as her partner and her own business to run, she was always tired and angry. Luckily, Dee wona scholarship to a prestigious school and was a great kid. Lydia never stopped missing Julia and being estranged from the family, Claire as well. When the news of a missing teenager blanketed the news, in fact, one that had gone to school with Dee, Lydia felt all the emotions come rushing back.

      Claire, married to a millionaire, she wanted for nothing. She also missed her sister, but did not seem to know that the reason for her acting out was because of this hole in her life. When Claire’s husband was murdered in front of her eyes, her heartbreak and devastating loss came crashing back around her. Claire’s nightmare became worse when she returned from the funeral to find her home had been broken into. As she began to follow up on some suspicions fed by police questioning, she is devastated by what she finds. Her first thought is to call Lydia for help.

      When the two sisters get together after so many years apart, the bond is still there, but the trust is not. They begin to work together to find answers to the questions that Claire has as well as to find out what really happened to Julia.

      Author Karin Slaughter has written an amazing stand alone novel, that can be pretty disturbing at times. It is filled with tension and terror, but it also shows the love of a family, and how that love can withstand many different things. Pretty Girls is a psychological thriller which is powerful and intense; the plot twists are fabulous and unexpected! I have no hesitation in recommending Pretty Girls extremely highly to all thriller lovers.

      Thanks to the Dead Good Crime Book Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.
    • 5/5
      Such a dark evil story... but so well-written! Kudos to Ms. Slaughter.
    • 3/5
      Being a cozy murder kind of reader, I didn't much care for the gore and torture in this book. It's one thing to create suspense - and Slaughter does this well - but to emphasize the torture is really not my cup of tea. The author is certainly good at her craft but this novel is just not one I will recommend.
    • 3/5
      This book was ok. Very very very disburbing... Oh did I say it was disturbing? It was. Also it was extremely long when it could've been shortened a lot to explain the story. It's about two sisters who are involved with a serial killer who maybe involved with the disappearance of their youngest sister. The only reason this got three stars was the twist I did not see coming. Otherwise... I wouldn't recommend it for anyone squeamish.

    Book preview

    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes - Karin Slaughter

    cover.jpg30340.png

    Contents

    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes

    Author's Note

    An Excerpt from Pretty Girls

    Prologue

    Chapter One

    About the Author

    Also by Karin Slaughter

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes

    Monday, March 4, 1991

    7:26 a.m.—­North Lumpkin Street, Athens, Georgia

    The morning mist laced through the downtown streets, spiderwebbing tiny, intricate patterns onto the sleeping bags lining the sidewalk outside the Georgia Theater. The doors wouldn’t open for at least another twelve hours, but the Phish devotees were determined to have front row seats. Two heavyset young men filled plastic lawn chairs by the chained front door. At their feet were beer cans, cigarette butts, and an empty sandwich bag that had likely contained a large amount of weed.

    Their eyes followed Julia Carroll as she walked down the street. She could feel their collective gaze clinging to her body as closely as the mist. She kept her head trained forward, her back straight, but then she wondered if she looked cold, haughty, and then she wondered with some annoyance why it mattered how she looked to these boys who were complete strangers.

    She never used to be this paranoid.

    Athens was a college town, anchored by the University of Georgia, which took up almost eight hundred acres of prime real estate and employed in some capacity over half of the county. Julia had grown up here. She was a student in the journalism program, a reporter for the campus newspaper. Her father was a professor at the college of veterinary sciences. At nineteen years old, she knew that alcohol and circumstance could turn nice-­looking boys into the kind of ­people you didn’t want to run into at seven-­thirty on a Monday morning.

    Or maybe she was being silly. Maybe this was like the time she was walking late at night in front of Old College and she heard footsteps behind her and saw a looming, speeding shadow and her heart flipped and she wanted to run but then the scary man had called out her name and it was only Ezekiel Mann from biology class.

    He had talked to her about his brother’s new car, then started quoting Monty Python lines, and Julia had picked up her pace so quickly that they were both jogging by the time they reached her dorm. Ezekiel had pressed his hand against the closed glass door as she’d signed herself into the building.

    I’ll call you! he’d practically yelled.

    She had smiled at him and thought, Oh, God, please don’t make me hurt your feelings, as she’d made her way toward the stairs.

    Julia was beautiful. She had known this since she was a child, but rather than embrace the gift, she had always seen it as a burden. ­People made assumptions about beautiful girls. They were the icy, backstabby bitches who always got their comeuppance in John Hughes movies. They were the trophies that no boy in school dared to claim. Everyone took her shyness for aloofness. Her mild anxiety for disapproval. That these assumptions had left her a near-­friendless virgin at the ripe age of nineteen went unremarked upon by everyone but her two younger sisters.

    College was supposed to be different. Sure, her dorm was less than a quarter mile from her family home, but this was Julia’s chance to reinvent herself, to be the person she had always wanted to be: strong, confident, happy, content (not a virgin). She squelched her natural propensity to sit reading in her room while the world passed outside her door. She joined the tennis club, the track club, and the wildlife club. She didn’t choose cliques. She spoke to everyone. She smiled at strangers. She went on dates with boys who were sweet if not terribly interesting, and whose desperate kisses reminded her of a lamprey eel burrowing its tongue into the side of a lake trout.

    But then Beatrice Oliver happened.

    Julia had followed the girl’s story on the telex at the Red & Black, UGA’s campus newspaper. Nineteen years old, the same as Julia. Blonde hair and blue eyes, the same as Julia. College student, the same as Julia.

    Beautiful.

    Five weeks ago, Beatrice Oliver had left her parents’ house around ten o’clock in the evening. She was on foot, walking to the store to get some ice cream for her father, who was suffering from a toothache. Julia wasn’t sure why that part of the story stuck out to her. It seemed suspect—­why would you want something cold on an aching tooth?—­but that was what both parents had told the police, so that detail was in the story.

    And the story was on the telex because Beatrice Oliver had never come home.

    Julia was obsessed with the girl’s disappearance. She told herself it was because she wanted to cover the story for the Red & Black, but the truth was that it scared her to death to know that someone—­not just someone, but a girl her own age—­could walk out the door and never come back again. Julia wanted to know the details. She wanted to talk to the girl’s parents. She wanted to interview Beatrice Oliver’s friends or a cousin or a neighbor or a coworker or a boyfriend or another boyfriend or anyone who might offer an alternate explanation other than that a nineteen year-­old girl with her entire life ahead of her had just vanished into thin air.

    We are looking at a likely abduction, the detective in the first story had been quoted as saying. All of Beatrice’s personal belongings were accounted for, including her purse, the cash she kept in her sock drawer, and her car, which was still parked in the family’s driveway.

    The most chilling statement came from Beatrice Oliver’s mother: The only reason my daughter has not come home is because someone is keeping her.

    Keeping her.

    Julia shuddered at the thought of being kept—­from her family, from her life, from her freedom. In her childhood books, the bogeyman was always scraggly and dark and looming, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but clearly (if you looked carefully) still a wolf. She knew that real life wasn’t like those fairy tales. You couldn’t easily spot the telltale mustache and goatee that indicated the wolf was a Bad Man.

    Whoever had Beatrice Oliver could be a friend or a coworker or a neighbor or a boyfriend or another boyfriend—­all of the ­people that Julia wanted to interview face-­to-­face. Alone. With just a pad and pen. Talking to a man who might at that very moment be keeping Beatrice Oliver somewhere awful.

    Julia put her hand to her stomach to calm the churning. She checked behind her, left and right, her eyeballs feeling jittery in her head.

    She tried to logic down some of her anxiety. It was possible she was winding herself up for no reason. The Beatrice Oliver interviews might not even happen. Before Julia spoke to anyone, she would need to get the story assignment okayed, because a news journalist could legitimately ask questions but a features writer (Julia’s section) was just being nosy. Her biggest obstacle would be Greg Gianakos, the student editor in chief who thought he was the next Walter Cronkite and reminded Julia of what her father said about beagles: They love to hear the sound of their own voices.

    If she could get Greg on board, then

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