Patron Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Posted by patron and guest blogger, Irv S.

The novel GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn was a New York Times bestseller and has been made into a movie, filmed, at least in part, in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Its  settings include Brooklyn, Manhattan, a small town in the Missouri Ozarks, Hannibal, and, primarily, a small town near Hannibal.

The two principal characters are Nick and Amy, a young married couple, one  complex and interesting, the other conniving and evil and much less appealing. The reader is nearly half way through the novel before discovering which is which. I probably would have laid the book aside before the halfway point but for a recommendation from a respected  reader, who had suggested that I would find a number of twists and surprises--and he was correct.  I'm glad that I didn't give up.

Some will consider it fiendishly clever, others will find it a psychological thriller, and still others merely a good summer "beach read."  It can qualify for all of the above.

The investigating detectives, Boney and Gilpin, one male, the other female, add a great deal to the story and are much more astute than one might expect from small town police--in fact they are probably too good to be believeable. They would both be at home  in a major metropolitan department.

Amy's parents are important and unlikeable. The cadre of cable news reporters plays a significant and largely distasteful role; its audience is predictably fickle and judgmental. The big city lawyer is a stereotype--manipulative, full of himself, and larger than life.

Other than Boney and Gilpin, I wouldn't want to meet Flynn's characters, but I'm glad that I was introduced to the novel.