Like any avid reader I tend to let random choices take me to unexpected places. In this case it is Grand Marais, Minnesota and a straightforward kidnap caper called The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. The press seem to equate this novel with Gone Girl which I saw part of the film of recently and am looking forward to reading as I missed the ending. It's thankfully part of a big pile on the bedside table. But this is not Gone Girl and doesn't pretend to be. The similarity is just for lazy journalists and marketers who haven't read either. Sure it's a psychological thriller and it involves a central female character. That's your similarity for you.
I found the style of The Good Girl both fascinating and irritating. The chapters are mostly 2 to 3 pages long. It clearly signposts which character you're reading and where it is on the timeline. There is a fair bit of repetition and making sure you know what's going on. It results in a story that reads like a TV script, which is not helped by the "even Jessica Fletcher could work it out" twist at the end. Nonetheless the shifting moral standpoint, the common humanity and the claustrophobic relationships all make this an efficiently compelling read and the threat of violence is refreshingly restrained rather than graphic and explicit.
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