The Good Daughter

The Good Daughter (2017) by Karin Slaughter is a tense, twisty crime thriller that delves into the complexities of family secrets, trauma, and survival. The novel revolves around sisters Samantha and Charlotte Quinn, survivors of a brutal crime. 28 years before, a horrifying attack on their family home in rural Georgia left their mother dead and their family fractured. When another violent incident recalls the past, Samantha and Charlotte are forced to reengage with one another and confront their traumatic history and the dark secrets that haunt them.

Exploring the themes of complex family dynamics and the lingering effects of trauma, The Good Daughter combines psychological realism with a literary critique of the workings of the criminal justice system. The novel was published to favorable reviews, establishing the prolific Karin Slaughter as a significant voice in the thriller and crime fiction genres. The Good Daughter was a New York Times bestseller. Slaughter has written over 20 crime titles, many of them based in Atlanta, Georgia, including the famous Will Trent series. The Good Daughter is in production to be adapted as a limited series with NBC.

This guide refers to the Haper Collins UK 2018 paperback version.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of murder, rape of children, sexual and physical violence, abuse, judicial execution, police brutality and corruption, suicide, ableism and inaccurate portrayals of disability, and the loss of children. It also describes anti-gay and anti-trans bias, including discriminatory threats, slurs, misgendering, and deadnaming.

Plot Summary

The lives of teenage sisters Samantha (Sam) and Charlotte (Charlie) Quinn are changed forever on March 16, 1989, when two masked men break into their house and shoot their mother Gamma dead. The men want revenge on Rusty, Sam, and Charlie's father, a defense lawyer in Pikeville, Georgia, famous for taking up the cases of alleged criminals no one else wants to defend. The masked men abduct the Quinn girls, taking them into the woods, where they intend to kill them. Sam, 16, tells Charlie, 13, to flee at the first opportunity. When Charlie takes off, one of the men shoots Sam in the head and buries her in a shallow grave. The other man, Zachariah Culpepper, catches Charlie and violently rapes her. His partner tackles him away from Charlie, and Charlie runs to a nearby farmhouse, where she alerts a woman, Judith Heller. Rusty arrives at Judith's house and asks Charlie to keep the rape a secret. Rusty wants to spare Charlie what he believes is the trauma of a trial. Charlie agrees to please him. Rusty and Charlie agree to say that Zach tried to rape Charlie, but was pulled away by his accomplice, who they presume is his brother Daniel. Sam survives the shooting and escapes from the grave. Her Injuries leave lasting physical effects, requiring years of rehabilitation. Police apprehend Zachariah Culpepper and he is sentenced to death. Daniel Culpepper is killed by police at point-blank range at the Culpepper home.

Twenty-eight years later, Charlie is still living in Pikeville, practicing defense law like Rusty, and separated from her husband, Assistant District Attorney Ben Barnard. While Charlie is close to Rusty, Sam is estranged from the family. Charlie visits Pikeville Middle School to swap phones with a teacher, Mason Huckabee, with whom she had a brief affair. A shooting at the school causes her to relive her past trauma. Hearing gunshots, Charlie rushes out into the hall where she finds Principal Doug Pinkman and a young child dead. Pinkman is the husband of Judith Heller, the same young woman who helped Charlie 28 years ago, also a teacher at the school. Judith is by the bodies, holding the dead girl. Nearby is a teenager with a gun in her hands, Kelly Wilson. Kelly is assumed to be the shooter and arrested. Though the scene suggests that Kelly is the killer, Rusty believes she is a “unicorn”, the rare defendant who is innocent. Rusty characteristically takes up Kelly's case, angering the people of Pikeville.

When Rusty is stabbed by an angry citizen, Ben contacts Sam. Sam, a patent lawyer in New York, returns to Pikeville. Sam has always blamed Rusty for Gamma's death, and resents Charlie for following in his career footsteps. Sam's ordeal and head injury have left her with chronic physical and psychological conditions. When Sam meets Rusty, he surprises her by asking her to represent Kelly at her arraignment; Charlie cannot represent Kelly as she was a witness at the shooting. Sam reluctantly agrees, although she is not a criminal lawyer. As Sam interviews Kelly, it becomes obvious that Kelly is intensely vulnerable. She is from an underprivileged family, has learning disabilities, and is also pregnant. She has suffered intense bullying at school and is naive about her situation. As she prepares for the arraignment, Sam notices several facts in Kelly's favor, such as the fact that Kelly did not kill Judith Pinkman. Though Sam and Charlie often lock horns because of old family dynamics and Sam's lingering anger issues, they also decide to work together for Kelly's case. Sam is a success at Kelly’s arraignment and when she visits Rusty in the hospital, he tells her he is proud of her. Rusty plans to give Sam a photo of Gamma he has not shared with anyone, capturing the exact moment the two fell in love. Rusty dies soon after this reconciliation.

Sam and Charlie clear Rusty's old files and discover Rusty has been writing cheques to Zach Culpepper's son. Mason Huckabee visits the sisters to confess a secret: It was Mason, and not Daniel, who was the other masked man with Zach the night Gamma was murdered. Mason had hired Zach to kill Rusty as Rusty had successfully defended the man accused of raping Mason's sister. Zach owed Rusty unpaid legal fees which he hoped to avoid. After the police shot Daniel Culpepper, Mason confessed the truth to Rusty. The cheques were written on behalf of Mason, to buy Zach’s silence. As secrets are revealed, Charlie finally tells Sam about the rape and Rusty's injunction for her to keep silent about it. Sam wishes she had known the truth and been there for her sister. Ben tells Charlie that Rusty told him everything a week before he died. Rusty’s greatest regret was to ask Charlie to hide the truth.

Meanwhile, Sam studies the security footage from the school shooting and discovers that Judith Pinkerman is holding the gun jointly with Kelly. Judith shot Doug Pinkman, her husband. Doug was a sexual predator and abusive husband, and the father of Kelly’s baby. He had wanted Kelly to move in with him and Judith so the three could raise the baby together. Angry, Judith groomed the vulnerable Kelly to commit the murder. Kelly lost her nerve so Judith held Kelly's hand to pull the trigger. Judith killed Lucy by accident when the little girl suddenly came into the hallway. After Charlie asks Judith about the shooting, Judith confesses and then kills herself. Kelly is sentenced to 10 years. Sam and Charlie reconcile and Sam returns to New York. Charlie and Ben reunite and plan to move to Atlanta. Charlie finds the photo of Gamma which Rusty mentioned and mails the image to Sam. Sam thinks the photo shows Gamma as she would want to be remembered, filled with joy and hope.