Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Mia Dennett, the daughter of a powerful Chicago judge, is kidnapped.  Her kidnapper was hired to hand her off to some thugs and he was concerned that they would kill her.  So instead of handing her over he finds himself taking her to a cabin his family used long ago in the deep woods of Minnesota.  Her mother, Eve, is frantic and her father is stoic, as per usual.  Gabe, the detective assigned to the case and warned not to mess up, grows close to Eve as they try to find her daughter.

The structure of the book is really interesting.  There are three main points of view: Gabe, Eve and Colin (the kidnapper).  Each tells their story as Before (while Mia is gone) and After (Mia returned to her family).  Having the multiple viewpoints and two timelines makes the disjointed storytelling work well to keep the reader off balance.

I listened to this book and I didn’t really like any of the readers.  I stuck with it because of the interesting structure and because no reader was reading for more than ten minutes at a stretch.  There is a zinger of an ending, but I felt it could have come sooner.  This is one I may have enjoyed it more in print format.