Isn't it always the husband?
Lizzie Kitsakis is a senior associate at the prestigious Manhattan law firm of Young & Crane. While working late one evening, Lizzie receives a collect call from a New York State correctional facility asking if she will accept a call from an inmate. Zach Grayson, her former college friend, is being held at Rikers for the assault of a police officer. But he also reveals that his wife was found dead at their upscale brownstone and he is the prime suspect. Zach maintains he didn't kill Amanda, and begs for Lizzie's help.
Diving deeper into the gossipy events leading up to Amanda's death, Lizzie discovers a series of journals. In these pages, Amanda details the abuse she endured as a child, as well the fact that she is in a loveless marriage. Lizzie also uncovers that there is a lot more that meets the eye with the Grayson's friend group, the fellow parents from their son's private school. And even Lizzie has secrets of her own. Her alcoholic husband, Sam, was involved in a car accident and has to pay a large settlement. This is why she had to give up her lower-paying job that she loved as a federal prosecutor and the reason that she lied on the financial disclosure form to get the job at Young & Crane.
Lizzie's worlds collide when she finds an earring that belonged to the victim in the pocket of Sam's messenger bag. She begins to question everything she thinks she knows as well as her own marriage.
Marketed as Big Little Lies meets Presumed Innocent, this spellbinding new novel from Kimberly McCreight is a clever—part legal and part psychological—thriller. The book opens with the most genius prologue. I'm not going to give away who is narrating, but what I can tell you is that after you finish, you will go back to the beginning and read it again! And can we just take a moment to appreciate the cover? Do you see the guy? I literally gasped when I saw him.
Character and plot are so intertwined. An author needs to develop both, because if they get it wrong, it can simply ruin the book. A Good Marriage definitely strikes this balance. It is a high-concept novel with strong pacing and deliciously complex characters.
The story is told by Lizzie in the present day, from Amanda's perspective in the days leading up to the murder, as well as through additional testimony and evidence. The two narrators are incredibly effective as the perfect mirror image of one another. I also loved how the whole book is a comment on marriage: the different types of marriages—open, traditional, of convenience—as well as the compromises that couples make, or the secrets they keep, in order to stay married.
Congratulations, Kimberly, on this fantastic book!
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KIMBERLY MCCREIGHT is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia (which has also been optioned for film by HBO and Nicole Kidman's Blossom Films), Where They Found Her, and the teen trilogy The Outliers (optioned for film by Lionsgate, Mandeville, and Reese Witherspoon's Pacific Standard).
McCreight lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
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