Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

On the day of their 5th wedding anniversary Nick's wife Amy disappears. There are signs of a struggle at their home and she appears to have completely disappeared. As we've all been taught by endless TV crime series' the husband is always the main suspect, and Nick has some things he wants to hide. However he maintains his innocence despite a mounting pile of evidence, including Amy's diary which paints a picture of a turbulent marriage. Even his family starts to doubt him but there is more to the story than the police can see.


This book was a story of two parts, with the narrative switching between Nick and Amy throughout. It starts slowly painting the picture of a devoted young couple with a bright future. As their circumstances change so too does their relationship and it soon appears both have things to hide. In the second part of the book the pace really accelerates and the reader has to start questioning everything they believed at the start. There are twists and turns aplenty and I ploughed on through to see whether justice would be served. I found it a page turner and enjoyed the rather warped ride.


The characters are a motley crew, all of them with their own personality flaws. Amy appears to be a complete perfectionist and control freak. Nick, who starts off as a likeable guy, is shown to be a less than perfect husband. Amy's parents have more emotional investment in their successful fictional character Amazing Amy, who netted them a fortune and always trumped their daughter, achieving all the things she didn't. None of them were particularly sympathetic characters but at least Nick and Amy are very self-aware and this made me really wonder about what would happen after the book draws to a close.


Although Gillian Flynn has received much critical acclaim she is new to me, and on the basis of this book I would definitely go away and look for more of her work.


Format: Kindle, Netgalley
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 
My Rating: 4*