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Book Summary and Reviews of A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight

A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight

A Good Marriage

by Kimberly McCreight

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • May 2020, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Big Little Lies meets Presumed Innocent in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, in which a woman's brutal murder reveals the perilous compromises some couples make - and the secrets they keep - in order to stay together.

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Filled with credible plot twists and realistically flawed characters, McCreight's page-turner presses readers to question everything they think makes a 'good' marriage. This will stay with the reader long after the finish." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"McCreight expertly weaves multiple plot threads with a few sly red herrings, paving the way to a series of surprising, and satisfying, reveals. A smartly plotted and altogether successful union of legal thriller and domestic suspense." - Kirkus Reviews

"A Good Marriage is a smart, provocative, insightful page-turner. I couldn't put it down." - Harlan Coben, author of Run Away

"Full of dark secrets and surprising twists, A Good Marriage explores what lies beneath the surface of friendships, families, and communities. A captivating psychological thriller that gripped me from beginning to end." - Megan Miranda, author of The Last House Guest

"A Good Marriage is absolutely, positively riveting. I could not put this down! Kimberly McCreight has crafted a captivating, thrilling story that bolts out of the gate at a breakneck speed and never misses a step." - Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & The Six

"I loved A Good Marriage, a fast-paced pageturner that combines the complexity of a legal thriller with the emotional resonance of domestic suspense. You won't be able to put it down!" - Lisa Scottoline, author of Someone Knows

This information about A Good Marriage was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews

Twists, turns, and surprises - Elizabeth @Silver's Reviews
Dealing with problems in her own marriage and now having to deal with defending a friend for a murder that Lizzie knew he didn't commit was not what Lizzie was looking forward to.

Lizzie was friends with Zach in college and knew he wasn't capable of murder, but did you really ever fully know someone? The married couples in this book definitely didn't know each other and had secrets from each other and from friends.

Zach and Amanda lived in a posh neighborhood. It was a life Amanda didn't grow up with. In fact, Amanda grew up impoverished. Did her childhood have something to do with her being murdered?

We see glimpses of Amanda before she met Zach and we always see Amanda as meek, but pleasant. We also feel her fear each time she gets a call that only has heavy breathing in the response to her hello. She knows who it is, but we are kept in the dark.

A GOOD MARRIAGE dragged until one-third of the way, but once secrets became revealed, the investigation got underway, and the characters confessed, the interest and tension definitely picked up.

If you like books with twists, turns, secrets, and surprises from all angles, you won’t want to miss A GOOD MARRIAGE. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Lani

Wicked ride of surprise
A perfect book for a book club discussion! What indeed constitutes a good marriage? How do we even define that? This novel creates 4 marriages that are wildly disparate, emphasizing the foundation of McCreight's work. In this fast pacing mystery, it is peppered with surprises and forms a compelling read of twists and turns. Lizzie is at an elite law firm when an old friend from college calls her from prison and tries to coerce her into taking his case in the mystery of his wife's death. Chapters take us behind the scenes into the lives of his wife's best friends and husbands who all possess secrets that threaten to uproot their lives. This mystery will grant the enthralled reader a work to devour during this Covid crisis.

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Author Information

Kimberly McCreight

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Alex Awards; Where They Found Her; and The Outliers young adult trilogy. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

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