The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Release Date - August 2014

Mary Kubica
Harlequin MIRA

Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth

Mary Kubica's The Good Girl is mainly told from three perspectives and two periods of time. As you get into the flow of things, it becomes easy to keep track, but I admit I had to keep notes at first to keep the story straight.

This is a suspense about a young teacher who disappears. Her mother, Eve; the detective assigned to her case, Gabe; and the kidnapper, Colin, all tell the majority of the story. Eventually, Mia, the young teacher, joins in.

Mia is a month from her 25th birthday when she disappears. Her father is a prominent Chicago judge. She and her mother have never been incredibly close. It's before the school where she works calls them to find out where she is, and even then, Mia's father is ready to write it off as Mia being rebellious Mia. Eve isn't as convinced. She knows Mia loves her job as an art teacher and something about this just doesn't feel right.

From there, the case proceeds into a spiraling array of twists. Some I saw coming and some I definitely didn't. That made for a story that was very hard to put down. There were characters I loved, others I wasn't as thrilled with. I did find myself wanting to smack a few for being so ignorant. In the end, that just shows that the author did a good job creating characters that I could form an emotional attachment to, even if it wasn't always a positive one.