Gone Girl

I was somewhat late coming to the party with this acclaimed crime novel by Gillian Flynn. You know how it is. Sometimes all the hype puts you off, especially if, like me, you are a bit of a contrarian. However I finally succumbed and I am glad I did. It’s a really gripping read, particularly the first half as we move backwards and forwards between Nick Dunne’s account of his wife’s disappearance and her diary entries from the years leading up to that day. It’s clear pretty soon that Nick is a unreliable narrator, all that’s in question is just how reliable. Has he murdered Amy or not? For my money the second half was not quite as good as the first half, but I won’t say more in case you haven’t read it. I was still carried along by the sheer brio of the narration until the (to me not entirely satisfactory) end. Mrs Peabody on her fine blog, Mrs Peabody Investigates, gives GONE GIRL (great title) 4.5 out of 5 and I think that is about right. It’s good, very good,and works as a corruscating account of a failed marriage as well as a suspenseful crime novel. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, these are pretty unpleasant people, but Gillian Flynn is a fresh and original voice and I’ll be keeping an eye on her.