I've been taking a break from thrillers recently but had The Good Marriage burning a hole in my bookshelf for a while. This novel was released last year and I received it as a Book of the Month. This isn't your traditional 'thriller', it's not even a thriller... I definitely need to get better at classifying books better.
"The Good Marriage" is a legal mystery with some murder and drama thrown in. It was very long winded but super interesting. I enjoyed it!
Publisher's Summary
Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart.
No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes.
The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect.
As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.
My Thoughts
I did enjoy the story but I did feel like it was slightly long; it was drawn out and some parts felt completely unnecessary. It also wasn't exactly a memorable story, though it was unique. I know I sound like I'm contradicting myself but it's just how I feel!
There weren't a ton of likable characters... I'd say no one was likable expect for Lizzie which was a nice change of pace because I usually don't care for the protagonists of every book I read.
"A Good Marriage" felt very Law & Order SVU which I really loved; the mystery of finding out what happened to Amanda, if Zach was innocent and what was the sketchiness happening from the police force. There were so many secrets to be uncovered and I loved that; the interesting subplots of family issues, mental health issues, technology and blackmail added so much to the story and made the entire book more unpredictable.
I couldn't put my finger on what the outcome of the book was going to be; it went in so many different directions and there was no way to figure out who was the killer or what really happened to Amanda. There were multiple times throughout the book where I gasped because something unexpected happened. It did keep me on my toes for a lot of the time!
There were times when I felt like the book was hard to follow just because there was a lot of different plots and moving parts. Some parts weren't completely necessary -- like the entire subplot of Lizzie's relationship and her parents, that didn't seem like it added anything to the story but it took up a lot of time.
Another part of the book I wasn't a fan of was the testimony from witnesses throughout the book -- it didn't add anything to the book and just felt like unnecessary pages.
All in all, I thought this book was good and interesting but it wasn't my favorite. If you like legal mysteries though, you will probably really enjoy this!
xoxo
B
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