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A review by dowryofbooks
A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight
3.0
3/5 stars
Lizzie is working late one night at a new firm, a job she didn't particularly want but was forced to take because of her own marriage troubles, when she gets a call from Zach, an old law school friend. He's in Rikers Prison, about to be charged with the murder of his wife and he wants Lizzie to represent him for an unknown reason considering she doesn't meet the right criteria to defend in a murder trial.
There's present day chapters from Lizzie collecting evidence, trying to find the truth about what happened to Amanda and what kind of person Zach really is. All while trying to sort out her own complicated issues with her husband. We also get a look into what Amanda's life was like with chapters from the past leading up to the night of her violent murder. Lastly, we get snippets of Grand Jury Testimony interviews from different witnesses and documents from a company investigating the hack of personal information of the families of Brooklyn County Day, the school Amanda and her friends' children attend.
I love thrillers that feel like a big intriguing puzzle that get you using real brain power trying to put all the pieces together. This book definitely gets points for an intricate plot and unpredictability.
There was drama and twists all throughout and I never knew where exactly this book was going until right at the ending. I appreciate the authors use of the red herrings she sprinkled in to throw us off, they definitely worked on keeping me guessing. Every time I thought I knew what was about to happen, new information would be revealed that proved me wrong.
I also loved the legal perspective/drama of it all, especially coming from an author who is a law school graduate.
!! slightly spoilery section !!
The main thing that kept this book from a 5 star for me was that I feel like using mental illness/having the wife be delusional or crazy and making them unreliable narrators in thrillers is a little bit played out. This book would have been just as good without that being thrown in, there was enough intrigue already, in my opinion.
The parts about Lizzie and Sam's relationship were also kinda eh for me. I just didn't really care about Sam at all.
Highly recommend this thriller though!
"Forgiveness is a side effect of love."
“If you are going to be married, share the ups and downs of life. What other choice is there?”
Lizzie is working late one night at a new firm, a job she didn't particularly want but was forced to take because of her own marriage troubles, when she gets a call from Zach, an old law school friend. He's in Rikers Prison, about to be charged with the murder of his wife and he wants Lizzie to represent him for an unknown reason considering she doesn't meet the right criteria to defend in a murder trial.
There's present day chapters from Lizzie collecting evidence, trying to find the truth about what happened to Amanda and what kind of person Zach really is. All while trying to sort out her own complicated issues with her husband. We also get a look into what Amanda's life was like with chapters from the past leading up to the night of her violent murder. Lastly, we get snippets of Grand Jury Testimony interviews from different witnesses and documents from a company investigating the hack of personal information of the families of Brooklyn County Day, the school Amanda and her friends' children attend.
I love thrillers that feel like a big intriguing puzzle that get you using real brain power trying to put all the pieces together. This book definitely gets points for an intricate plot and unpredictability.
There was drama and twists all throughout and I never knew where exactly this book was going until right at the ending. I appreciate the authors use of the red herrings she sprinkled in to throw us off, they definitely worked on keeping me guessing. Every time I thought I knew what was about to happen, new information would be revealed that proved me wrong.
I also loved the legal perspective/drama of it all, especially coming from an author who is a law school graduate.
!! slightly spoilery section !!
The main thing that kept this book from a 5 star for me was that I feel like using mental illness/having the wife be delusional or crazy and making them unreliable narrators in thrillers is a little bit played out. This book would have been just as good without that being thrown in, there was enough intrigue already, in my opinion.
The parts about Lizzie and Sam's relationship were also kinda eh for me. I just didn't really care about Sam at all.
Highly recommend this thriller though!