A Good Marriage had such Big Little Lies vibes with a PTA scandal, a murder and so many possible suspects. I thoroughly enjoyed this salacious glimpse into the Brooklyn private school world and it kept me guessing as to the identity of the true murderer until the very end. If you are looking for an edge of your seat, page turner of a thriller, this is it.

When attorney Lizzie gets a frantic call one night from an old law school friend Zac, she reluctantly agrees to help him. He stands accused of murdering his wife Amanda. While Lizzie does not personally believe Zac killed his wife, the deck is stacked against him. Lizzie works tirelessly to prove Zac’s innocence, but something doesn’t add up. Before she knows it everyone’s secrets are about to be exposed, including her own.

A Good Marriage is told from three perspectives: Lizzie, an attorney for a big law firm who is hired by Zack Grayson to defend him in his wife’s murder case, Amanda, the wife who was murdered, telling her story in the days up to her death, and grand jury testimonies from other people who were at the party the night Amanda was killed.

I flew through A Good Marriage. The style really worked for me and kept me engaged. It keeps you guessing, unsure who in the story you can really trust, including both narrators. The ending pleasantly surprised me, something I find to be rare for thrillers. On top of the main plot of murder, there’s a subtle element of cybercrime that truly intrigued me.

I thoroughly recommend A Good Marriage for fans of thrillers! Thank you to Harper Collins, Netgalley, and BookishFirst for the review copy! All opinions are my own.

Fans of domestic suspense are likely to enjoy A GOOD MARRIAGE, which definitely keeps the reader guessing. I liked it, but found it overwhelming at times. In addition to multiple POVS the author includes emails, transcripts, etc. to the point that the narrative feels over the top -- especially because everyone has secrets and the reader is constantly reminded of that. The whole unreliable narrator thing gets a bit tiresome. But again, overall, this is well done. The twists and turns are satisfying and the ending is smart.

This book kept the reader guessing from the first chapter to the last. I would think I had it figured out, but then the plot would swerve in a different direction completely and a whole other possibility would appear. All the characters had secrets and one by one the author brought them to the surface. The best thing about this book was the ending and Lizzie's relationship to Sam. At first he is not a particularly lovable character, in fact, compared to the other men, he is the least likable, but SPOILER ALERT, he turns out to be the best of the bunch and you know that he and Lizzie will be just fine.

Lizzie Kitsakis is working late at the corporate law firm where she is an associate when she gets a call from an old friend from her law school days whose wife has been murdered. He's being held without bail and wants her to represent him--even though she is not a criminal lawyer.

I really enjoyed this book. I don't even want to say what I liked about it as I don't want to give anything away. Suffice to say the writing, characters and plot were very well done and kept me turning the pages.

The affluent families of Kimberly McCreight's, A Good Marriage have more skeletons tucked away than a museum of natural history. When personal information is hacked, tensions run high. A lamb among wolves, Amanda, the sweet young wife of a startup genius, carries her own baggage. Her death brings the sordid details of the lives of family, friends, and neighbors bubbling to the surface. A slow burn that will quickly ignites, McCreight's A Good Marriage is sure to be a crowd-pleaser for fans of legal thrillers and domestic suspense alike!

Told through multiple points of view, as well as formats beyond simple prose (such as grand jury testimony, inner-company communication memos, and emails), Kimberly McCreight’s newest thriller will satisfy those who are already fans of her work, as well as delight those who are new to her books. Everything that readers loved about Where They Found Her and Reconstructing Amelia is again found in A Good Marriage. McCreight’s storytelling is fantastic as she weaves multiple storylines together and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat from the first page to the last.

We first meet Lizzie, who works long hours as a new attorney at an elite law firm. She is struggling to deal with an alcoholic husband as their life, collectively and individually, seems to be falling apart. Lizzie also has secrets she is keeping.

Out of the blue, Lizzie receives a call from Zach, an old law school acquaintance, who has been arrested for the murder of his wife, Amanda. He needs an attorney and remembers Lizzie’s skills from law school. Zach and Amanda both had secrets they were keeping as well.

In spite of her best efforts to decline, Lizzie ends up taking Zach’s case and following the information she is given ends up examining a very dark side of a very fancy neighbourhood. Zach and Amanda’s friends and their spouses also have secrets to keep.

McCreight includes several different types of marriages in this story, but all of them at some point will make the reader think about just what an actual good marriage really is, and what it might look like from the outside as well as the inside.

As the reader, we have Lizzie telling the story as it happens, but we also have Amanda telling the story of the last few days of her life, though she is of course unaware that that is what they are. We also get part of the story through grand jury testimony and though emails. Collectively, we get a fascinating, suspenseful tale that weaves together multiple events and storylines.

This is definitely a book that is almost impossible to put down once you have picked it up. You’ll gasp, you may blush, you may cry, and you may cheer, but you will still not be able to stop reading!

Just finished this page turning domestic thriller and haven't stopped thinking about it since. I have been chasing a good suspenseful novel for awhile and this one hit the spot. It took no time to get into the story and I did not want to put it down.

The set up: a woman who is trying to hold her life and marriage together is called by an old friend who has been accused of murdering his wife. Lizzie is pulled into the story of a group of elite in a unique neighborhood in Brooklyn. She is investigating and trying to find out the truth behind the death of a woman she never met and finding out secrets about not only the people she does not know but also her own husband.

There are many different plot twists and connections that I did not see coming. I have read the previous work of this author so I was very excited to pick up this book and it did not disappoint!!

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy to read.

A Good Marriage was a fast-paced legal/domestic thriller. There were a lot of characters, but you could keep them straight. The story begins with an anonymous note from someone in prison. Then Lizzie, our main protaganist, gets a call from Zach, a former classmate. Zach is in prison, a potential suspect in the murder of his wife. He claims he's innocent, but don't they all?

He asks Lizzie to take on his case and she does. This turns into a legal thriller trying to determine if Zach is innocent, and if so, who killed his wife, Amanda. We get scenes from Amanda's perspective leading up to her murder as well.

This book is filled with secrets, twists and turns. It's next to impossible, I'd say, to predict how it will end, which is a good thing... but I think there was just too much. Some of the twists and secrets opened up huge plot holes which were never addressed or reconiciled. The secrets, in some cases, were mentioned as a secret early but not revealed until much later and the reveal was lacking (you think it's going to be this big, relevant secret and then... eh.).

With fewer attempts to twist, and instead devoting that time to fully fleshing out the twists, this could have easily been a five-star read. It was compelling and a definite page-turner, but I was left disappointed with a few of the secrets/twists.

Kimberly McCreight does it again! Another fast paced, page turner thriller!! Definitely a Big Little Lies vibe. I highly recommend this book!

"But I had no doubt anymore that a lie of omission was a lie all the same."

This is my third Kimberly McCreight and when I saw this book for request on NetGalley I was so hype. McCreight's books always stress me out and make me think so I was so ready for A Good Marriage.

Lizzie is a prosecutor turned corporate defense lawyer who gets a call from an old law school friend, Zach, who was arrested for his wife Amanda's murder. The story goes back and forth between Amanda's final 6 days and Lizzie digging deeper into the situation around Amanda's murder.

A Good Marriage is Lizzie and Amanda's stories - two women who are stuck in their lives, stuck in their marriages, and living with so many secrets. Amanda is stuck with Zach - a husband who doesn't love her, a marriage of convenience, but a son she adores. Amanda has a mysterious past filled with abuse and trauma that slowly comes out as Lizzie begins investigating. Lizzie is stuck in a marriage with her husband Sam, an alcoholic who she just can't stop loving and supporting. And both Amanda and Lizzie are stuck in a whirlwind of lies, secrets and despair.

This book is about what makes a "good" marriage. What it means to be stuck and how to try and fight for the life and marriage that you want. It's about lying, to yourself and to others, to protect yourself or others or to hide your shame. It made me question if I think honesty in a relationship is the most important, or if it's ok to lie sometimes. And it made me think about how far I would go to protect a person I love.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book - it kept me guessing and the mysteries and red herrings are doled out so well that I was racing to finish so I could get the full picture. And there are twists and turns that I surely wasn't expecting, although some I guessed.

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you, Netgalley, for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

McCreight has done it again! I have enjoyed each of books thus far, but perhaps this one the most. The plot development kept me constantly wanting more. With A Good Marriage, she doesn't leave all of the big reveals for the end, but still manages to keep you guessing throughout the entire book. There's nothing I like more than reaching the last few chapters of a suspenseful novel, only to realize that I haven't quite figured it out yet. Bravo!

Maybe it is being stuck indoors due to COVID-19, but I found the entire cast of characters in this Brooklyn hipster mystery totally unpleasant and not worth spending time with. The book has two unreliable narrators, both of whom are annoyingly passive as a result of harboring secrets revealed to readers in drips and drabs. Throughout my reading I wanted to haul off and slap both these damaged women, so if I was supposed to feel compassion for them, it wasn’t happening.
After dragging on for days, dropping stingy clues like breadcrumbs, the final answer to the murder of Amanda was ridiculously convoluted with way too many red herrings. The big reveal was so crammed into the final pages that I had trouble matching characters with names.
If you are a fan of books and tv series about backstabbing female friends, and I realize they are legion, you will probably enjoy this, but it left me with a need to wash my hands, and it wasn’t just to guard against the Coronavirus.

I’ve enjoyed Kimberly McCreight’s other thrillers, particularly Where They Found Her, so I was excited to discover she was publishing a new one. The book is told through the perspectives of Lizzie and Amanda. Lizzie is a lawyer dealing with an alcoholic husband and representing her former law school colleague Zach, who was charged with his wife’s murder. Amanda is his wife and we learn about the last few days of her life from her point of view, as she recounts her loveless marriage and her friendships with several other moms from her Brooklyn neighborhood. There were several twists towards the end of the book (although there was one that annoyed me) and it kept my attention throughout. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed this book a good bit. The setting, all of it. This author wasn’t one of my faves but I read this & 2 other books this week by my authors I always enjoyed & “A Good Marriage” was the surprising dark horse win. The setting, the computer mystery & I didn’t guess the murderer until it was revealed. Solid 4 stars!

A Good Marriage is a GOOD book. I devoured this one despite the page count! Kimberly McCreight has been on my radar for quite some time now and starting with this one was absolutely perfect for me. Now i need to go back and read her backlist of novels.

If you're in the mood for a domestic thriller/suspense I highly recommend this one!

4.5 stars

I was enthralled after I really got into this book. I was not expecting the the twist of what happened in the end. A marriage that "works," dlusions, secrecy, cyberhacking and murder.

I have so many thoughts and feelings. This book captured me from the very beginning. The writing is spectacular and you never hit a lull in the story. I couldn’t put this book down and you can’t count on two hands how many times the plot took a twist. I look forward to reading more from this author!

I really liked the structure of this book, with present day Lizzie trying to solve Amanda’s murder, alternating with Amanda’s perspective in the days leading up to it. It took me a while to feel invested in Lizzie’s perspective, but towards the end I couldn’t put it down! I also really liked how everything played out at the end. I always think I have these thrillers figured out... and then I never do!

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of this book!

This was such a fun read. Just when I thought I had it figured out there was another twist.
The over use of profanity may be a distraction or off putting to some readers.
The book has adult subject matters that may be triggering:: sexual exploitation of minors, causal sexual encounters, pornography addiction etc.
the book was a quick read and thoughtfully constructed to keep the reader engaged.
Thank you for the advanced copy