Gillian Flynn
Crown: New York, 2012
ISBN: 978-0297859383
By all accounts, Amy and Nick Dunn are the perfect couple, from looks on down to their marriage. When the recession leaves both of them unemployed, they move from New York to Nick's suburban Missouri hometown to care for his terminally ill mother. Using the remainder of Amy's trust fund, Nick opens a bar and they settle into a life very different from their urban one, until Amy disappears with signs of a struggle on the fifth anniversary. Nick and the police are left bewildered, with few leads. All is not as it seems in this contemporary noir though things are starting to point to Nick. Told in alternating chapters between Amy's diary recalling their past, and Nick's narrative voice in the present, this novel is suspenseful and engaging. It is easy to see why this became such a bestseller, and it is recommended for adults and mature teens aged 16 and up, for sexuality and violence (and sheer plot complexity).
