Cover Image: A Good Marriage

A Good Marriage

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Member Reviews

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a decent read. The story was fast paced and had several layers. The characters were interesting. I did figure out a couple of the mystery angles, but I didn’t figure out the biggest part.

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Fast pacing pulled me into this tricky mystery. Everyone in this book seems so unreliable you’re not quite sure who did what until the very last pages. I really enjoy this authors work and will certainly pick up more from her.

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When Amanda is found dead, her husband, Zach, contacts a former law school friend, Lizzie, to represent him and prove his innocence. What follows are questions of every marriage, friendship and the secrets within each. There were definitely enough twists and turns and revelations to keep me interested.

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A GOOD MARRIAGE is one hell of a book. McCreight gifted her readers with an addictive and thrilling story. I cannot remember the last time I was so pulled in from the beginning. The flow was effortless. The tension, twists, and secrets are perfectly balanced with how the characters develop. What a great read!!!

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This story focuses on Zach, a wealthy entrepreneur whose wife Amanda is found dead in their home after returning from a friend's party. Zach is the obvious and only suspect. But was someone stalking Amanda? His good college friend Lizzie, a lawyer who works at the law firm of Young and Crane, is pulled into the case and all the drama and mystery that surrounds it as the story plows on.
The story is told in alternating POVs: Amanda and the events leading up to the party as she deals with secrets and her marriage crumbling; and Lizzie as she defends Zach and launches an investigation to prove his innocence.
This started out a little slowly for me, but it definitely picked up and kept me reading to find out all the answers! It's a plot-driven legal thriller full of twists and turns - just when you think you've got it all figured out, trust me, you don't. I love the way the author tied it all up at the end. While it takes a little stretching of the imagination, they don't call it fiction for nothin', right? Overall, great summer read!
Thanks to Kimberly McCreight, HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC.

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A Good Marriage is great for thriller lovers and mystery lovers as well who enjoy twists and turns in the plot. The main character in the story is a lawyer who gets sucked into defending an old friend who is accused of murdering his wife. Did he really do it though? Everybody is under suspicion and the reader may very well find themselves guessing until the very end. A Good Marriage is well-written by accomplished writer, Kimberly McCreight, who has multiple bestsellers to her name. Characters are well developed and the ending is satisfyingly tied-up. I'd not hesitate to hand it to fans of legal thrillers.

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A solid title which I enjoyed, I am not sure there is a lot that distinguishes it, but I would read this author again.

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Wow. This was a great read from start to end. I read so many thrillers that a sign of a good one for me is that I can't figure it out. Thks one had me going almost to the end..... which earns five stars from me. Fantastic!!

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This book kept me guessing until the very end. There were many twist and turns. I was intrigued from the very beginning.

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Thank you to the publisher for this advanced copy. I've enjoyed past titles by this author and this one was enjoyable as well.. Nothing extraordinary, but a quick, engaging read.

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This would be a great book for fans of Liane Morarity's Big Little Lies. I loved the narration and writing style that Kimberly demonstrates in her novels. I can't wait to read future novels from this author.

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Kimberly McCreight is one of my go-to mystery / thriller authors (I also loved Reconstructing Amelia and Where They Found Her). I’ve recently realized I have much more success with mysteries / thrillers if they’re heavy on either A) psychology or B) legal / courtroom drama. A Good Marriage is heavy on the legal angle and McCreight went to law school at Penn. She sets a breadcrumb trail that leads up to an ending that is surprising, yet not too outlandish and still makes sense in the story. I also loved how she explored different issues that often mean trouble for marriages: addiction, workaholism, neglect, fidelity, money, and ambition (to name a few). And, the swanky Park Slope setting added some glitz. If you’re a fan of Alafair Burke or Angie Kim, Kimberly McCreight needs to be next on your list! 4.25 stars!

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I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

There are several couples with children in the same elite day school in Park Slope, Brooklyn who are friends. At the opening of the story, one of these women, Amanda, is found brutally murdered. At the same time, an unknown person has hacked into the computer system at the school and is threatening many of the parents. Lizzie is a newly-hired attorney at a prestigious law firm. She is contacted by an old school acquaintance who is in jail at Riker's Island for Amanda's murder.

How are all of these people linked together? Which couples have good marriages and what does that mean for each of them?

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What a terrific book! A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight was a perfect murder mystery. When I thought I knew who the murderer was, the author changed direction. I was kept guessing until the last five pages. The book flowed seamlessly and I was completely engaged with the characters.

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Super engrossing mystery. You will NEVER guess who it is. And then even AFTER you know who it is? Still surprises in store. Giving this to all my friends and family.

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When Lizzie gets a call from her old law school friend, she feels compelled to help him out. Zach has been accused of murdering his wife, so Lizzie decides to represent him. But she doesn’t realize that there are secrets in both Zach’s and his wife’s lives that can jeopardize everything she’s worked towards in her career and in her own marriage. Part legal thriller and part domestic mystery, McCreight invites readers into the multi-faceted marriages of multiple characters in this novel. Told through multiple perspectives, readers gain insight into the crime and go on a wild ride of accusations, epiphanies, and surprises. Readers won’t see the ending coming. Mystery readers and readers of McCreight’s previous work will devour this book.

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This story just never came together for me. Once the suspects started being revealed, each had a story that explained why they were not the killer, but then when the killer was explained, it turned out to be an accident. She had fallen several times after the man you discover she was having an affair with had startled her. She thought it was her dead father and he was stalking her?? She actually killed her father several years before and her friend was dead too, but she thought they were still alive. What? Then something about the lawyers Dad being in jail, but she didn't want to tell anyone. It just was too much.

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4.5 ⭐️. I liked this setting a lot. Privileged people are so interesting. Greed and sex, throw in messed up marriages and you have the building blocks for great story. Lizzie thinks she is just helping a friend from law school, then she finds that he actually lives not far from her, in the Park Slope neighborhood of New York City. Upscale, kids attend private schools, if mom's don't work they are very involved with schools and philanthropy. While attempting to defend him, as she digs into his now dead wife, Amanda, and their acquaintances. she finds much more. She finds that neither Zack nor Amanda were honest with each other. She is dealing with her own marital problems and as she peels back the layers of problems she worries about herself.
Many sad parts to this book too as it appears secrets just weigh people down.
Very good.

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A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight has twists and turns reminiscent of her previous novels and I couldn't be happier about it. Lizzie and Sam seem like the perfect couple to the outside world, but the secrets within their marriage prove to be more than they can handle. Lizzie had wanted to work as a prosecutor since law school and Sam was an aspiring writer, but life didn't work out the way she'd planned. Now Lizzie is forced to take a job at a prestigious law firm with long hours and corporate rules.

When Amanda Grayson is found dead at the bottom of her stairs, her husband, Zach, Lizzie's old law school friend contacts Lizzie for help. She reluctantly takes the case after being encouraged by her boss. As Lizzie digs into the events leading up to Amanda's murder, she finds that nothing is as it seems, not even Zach and Amanda's friends. Everyone has secrets about their marriages and lives and are trying incredibly hard to keep it that way.

I loved this book, especially as I neared the final 75% of the book. It is definitely a slow burn- there are a lot of characters to be introduced to and information to gather before you can start coming up with your own theories. It could have been my reluctance to read during this time, but I stopped and started this book multiple times before finally getting past the halfway point and feeling the need to keep reading. I thoroughly enjoyed Reconstructing Amelia and was hoping this book would be similar in construction. While it was very different in terms of the narrator, timing, etc, I did enjoy this novel and the last half of the book kept me guessing with all the twists.

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This started out like a typical legal thriller but boy did it quickly change! Very unexpected twists and turns made me wonder what the heck was really going on.! Great read and highly recommended!

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