Book Review: The Good Girl

When I asked the man at the information desk where I could find "The Good Girl," he responded "um do you mean "Gone Girl?"  Both thrillers with similar names, such confusion was inevitable.  But I am sure once people start reading "The Good Girl" it will establish its own [deserved] following.

Mia Dennett has always been the black sheep of her family.  Her trophy wife mother has become detached and her father and sister look at her with disdain because she chose a more bohemian life instead of the legal profession they see as proper.  They don't pay much mind when she goes home with a man she met at a bar and doesn't show up for work the next day.  They think she is just being reckless until the days turn into weeks and worry sets in.

"The Good Girl" alternates between "before" and "after" and is told from the view points of Mia's mother, the detective working on her case, and her abductor.  Unlike "Gone Girl," this novel does not attempt to throw a surprise your way every five pages.  It's more of a slow burn as "before" and "after" meet at the present and we learn which characters, exactly, deserve our sympathy.

4 out of 5 stars.