Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl is a missing girl mystery on the surface. On the afternoon of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunn gets a call at the bar he owns. A neighbor reports that his front door is wide open. Nick goes home to discover that his wife, Amy Dunn, to whom he is not so happily married, is not home. She appears to have left in a hurry; an iron atop an ironing board has been left on, the living room shows signs of a struggle. Immediately, the police become convinced of foul play and Nick becomes the prime suspect, despite the fact that Flynn has pretty much clued us in that Nick is....not a likely suspect. Soon though, a whole host of mysterious and terribly incriminating evidence starts popping up that pretty much points to him, not only the likely, but the obvious suspect.

As the police pursue their case, as Nick tries to make sense of his world as it starts quickly falling apart, we are taken through his and her recollections of the Dunn's marriage. The mystery at the heart of the book is puzzling, but the Dunn's marriage is truly more confounding. There marriage truly is a hell. Neither can stand the other but neither can stand to leave. Very quickly, the reader not only want to know what happened to Amy, but also how  and why this couple ever married. What were they thinking?

Actually, the mystery only deepens the further back Nick and Amy go. In the early days, their relationship seems a wonderful union. Later, Nick claims, "I'd fallen in love with Amy becausee I was the ultimate Nick with her. Loving her made me superhuman, it made me feel alive. ..I got smarter being with her. And more considerate, and more active, and more alive"(214). Amy's recollection glows similarly: "[Nick] was the first naturally happy person I met who was my equal. He was brilliant and gorgeous and funny and charming and charmed...I thought we would be the most perfect union: the happiest couple around"(224). And, for a while they are.

Five years on though and all has gone to hell. They become the couple who only stay together because neither can give up the game of besting, torturing the other. And, yet, while Nick is the chief suspect and tons of evidence points to him as the person responsible for Amy's disappearance, Flynn leads us to believe otherwise. So....what' happened to Amy?

If you read this, make an effort not to skip ahead. There are certain structural features, chapter headings, that will begin to give away what has happened. Regardless though, Flynn has contrived a plot that should surprise any reader. And, it's hard to rush through this book since the writing, the detail on the characters, the dialogue, the quips and descriptions are so original and consistently funny. You want to know what happened but you don't want to miss a line of Flynn's fabulous, funny, inventive writing.