A Good Marriage Review

A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary

Everybody has the perfect marriage on the outside, but everybody is hiding a secret. For Lizzie it’s hiding her alcoholic husband while working her way up as a corporate lawyer. She may not be the happiest, but she’s working at it. Lizzie is so focused on the now that she forgets about the past completely. Until she gets a call from her old college friend Zach. Hi wife was found murdered, and now he’s being held in prison awaiting trial. He swears he didn’t kill her, and he needs Lizzie’s help.

Thoughts

Before I get into my review, I just want to preface this by saying there will be a spoiler section toward the end, but don’t worry I’ll make it obvious!

So, anyway, this book was a genuine shot in the dark. I needed another BOTM, because I had extra credits, so I chose to go with a random legal thriller that had a rather higher Goodreads rating. I figured it was one of the few sub-sections of thriller I hadn’t tried yet, and How to Get Away with Murder is one of my favorite shows, so why not. And boy, am I glad I did!

While reading this book, I was definitely kept on my toes. I had no idea who actually killed Zach’s wife, or even why. I offhandedly said a character as a random guess, but I genuinely didn’t know until I had about 7- pages left. I’d call that a feat! I also thought the way everything happened chronologically in the book made complete sense. You slowly gain information in the real world so I appreciated that.

The way all of the characters intertwined was also a huge part of the book I greatly appreciated. They were all more connected than I saw coming, and even more than any of them knew. The plot flowed so well because of this, and all the ends tied up at the end. Something I always struggle with thriller is the pacing, since it feels like the middle is some type of plateau, but I can gladly say that was NOT the case with this book. It felt like a fast walk up a steep incline, and then cliff diving off into what you hope is safe water below.

I also greatly appreciated the discourse in this book about what makes “a good marriage.” It talks about how everybody is hiding something (big or small) to everyone, including to their spouses. It was amazing, and something that I think should be brought up more, especially since marriage at its heart, is a greatly romanticizing thing.

While I did thoroughly enjoy this book, there were a few qualms I had with it that kept me from giving it a “top top tier rating.” The first being I wanted to see them actually in the court room. They had snippets from the prosecutor’s witnesses, but nothing else. I wanted more. I wanted to see Lizzie take the floor. I also wanted more explanation to Zach’s wife’s delusions and how that sub sequentially affected her. This isn’t necessarily integral, but but it just felt a little weird to not have more information on it. Then the ending. It wasn’t bad, it was objectively GOOD. I’m just a fan of messy endings. Does that make me awful? But everything was so clean, and I guess you could argue nobody won, but let’s be honest Lizzie won.

That’s all I have for non-spoilers, there’s a few specific things I want to talk about in full spoilers. So Be aware! Also, if you wanted to leave now and were wondering if I’d recommend this, yes!! I’m so happy I read it! It was such a fun (again bad person?) journey from start to finish! I’m sending it to my grandma so she can read it, so obviously I already recommended it to people. I would say anyone that is okay with death should read this! Especially those that like crime/thriller shows. Think How to Get Away with Murder, Boston Legal, Criminal Minds.

OKAY SO…

Spoilers! (Continue if you dare…)

From page 1 I said Lizzie’s husband, Sam, killed Zach’s wife. I just thought she was establishing his alcoholic tendencies too much for him to not be a part. But I had NO idea he’d be accidentally involved. It was honestly kinda funny. He knew who the murderer was, but had no idea he did. As for who the killer actually was, I had NO idea it was going to be Kerry. He was my favorite character, I thought he was funny, and the most “normal” but after that ending I can see it. I haven’t been that surprised in a long time, and the fact that he was the fired partner? Amazing!

Also, Zach. I wanted a spoiler section on him. I’m so happy McCreight didn’t make him some loving great husband. It really shows that lawyers sometimes have to put aside their thought and feelings on their clients to do their job. Also blackmailing all of his wife’s friends to see if his new business would work! Oh my god, that was such a fun (am I sounding more and more awful?) subplot!

That’s all I had that I felt was bursting out of me to talk about! Have you guys read it? What did you think?