Mary Kubica’s The Good Girl has been endlessly compared to Gone Girl (primarily because the titles are similar, would be my bet), and while it offers similar suspense and mystery, it’s really a different book. It’s not quite as good, in my opinion — just not as tightly plotted — but still very enjoyable and compelling. And it has one hell of an ending — it blindsided me and made me want to reread the whole damn thing.
“I didn’t set out to be a bad mother, however. It just happened. As it was, being a bad mother was child’s play compared to being a good mother, which was an incessant struggle, a lose-lose situation 24 hours a day; long after the kids were in bed the torment of what I did or didn’t do during those hours we were trapped together would scourge my soul.”
Mia goes missing at the beginning of the novel — disappears after having a drink in a bar. Her mother, Eve, is frantic; her father, Judge James Dennett is unconcerned — Mia was a troubled teen and he doesn’t see how she’s matured into a responsible adult. Detective Gabe Hoffman, who has a bit of a thing for Mia’s mother, finds himself on a missing persons case that drags out for months. We know immediately who took Mia, and why — Colin Thatcher was hired to kidnap her and drop her off with his boss, but he gets attached to her and can’t do it. So instead, he kidnaps her and takes her out to a cabin in the woods.
We also know that Mia gets back — the novel alternates between three points of view (Eve, Gabe & Colin), and two points of time (before & after the kidnapping). The mystery is how — how does Mia survive, how does Mia return, how does Mia lose her memory and become convinced that her name is Chloe?
Like I said, it was a pretty decent little story — until the spectacular ending, which bumped it from 3 1/2 stars to an easy 4 for me. Wow!
