Karin Slaughter is a wonderful author. She not only writes well; she also puts together a great story--always, I thought. Maybe this time is an exception, though.

GIRL, FORGOTTEN is a continuation of Andrea's story from PIECES OF HER. She's more mature now and a US Marshal in a small town outside Baltimore. She and her partner are assigned to "babysit" a judge there who has received death threats.

Also, this is the town where Andrea's father, the psychopath in PIECES OF HER, grew up. Although she and her mother now feel safe knowing that he is in prison, Andrea wants to be sure he stays there.

The judge Andrea has been assigned to guard is the mother of a teenager who was murdered back in the 1980s. Andrea has assigned herself the job of determining whether the murderer was her father. That would keep him in jail for life.

Slaughter alternates chapters between the teenager in the 1980s and Andrea in present day. The problem is with the experiences of the pregnant and unmarried teenager. If you were born before 1980 and especially if you were the same age as this teenager during the 1980s, her experiences will not ring true. They are unrealistic. The 1980s are described as backward, as if they are the 1930s. I knew pregnant teenagers back in the 1970s who were not ostracized by friends and family. They were not thrown out of their public school. Their doctors acted professionally. Their parents, though angry and upset, did not find it necessary to keep them as prisoners in their homes.

The teenager's mother, the judge, had been appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan. She was afraid her daughter's pregnancy would ruin her career. That is especially unrealistic, considering all the trouble Reagan had with his own kids.

All this and more about these 1980s chapters irritated me so much that I had a hard time enjoying Andrea's chapters. I'm not even looking forward to the next book in this series, although I will read it if Slaughter writes it. I won't drop her as a favorite author for this one mistake.