The Good Girl

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Like "two tiny figurines in a snow globe that some child has turned over", she feels at peace; truly loved and cherished for the first time in her life. Not long ago, this man that stands beside her, shivering in the tranquility and solitude of newly fallen snow, had every intention of killing her.

Mia could never please her father, James Dennett, the powerful, arrogant, opinionated Chicago judge. He wants to mold her into his likeness as he did with her sister, Grace. Mia chooses a different path by distancing herself from the wealth and prestige her father clings to and desires. She fosters her passion for art by teaching troubled youth in an inner city school. Here she finds happiness, far away from the confines of a home that never welcomed her.

Jilted once again by her current boyfriend, Mia spends a lonely night drinking in the bar where they all know her by name. This night a stranger approaches her, and after exchanging pleasantries, they head to his apartment where Mia hopes to obliterate depressing thoughts that fill her mind, if only for a few fleeting hours. Colin Thatcher is his name, a puzzling man with dark, piercing eyes. It soon becomes apparent that he has other plans for this fragile, lonely young woman. The chilling extortion plot that Colin agreed to is under way. Deliver her to the dangerous thugs who orchestrated this scenario, and he'll have enough money to ease his growing financial woes. Really very simple if it all goes according to the script.

Inexplicably, Colin suddenly changes his mind and continues to drive through the night, hostage in tow, to a desolate, forlorn cabin hidden from civilization in the backwoods of Minnesota. Endless days and nights pass in this frozen remote tundra as Mia slips farther and farther into a world from which she may never escape. All the while, her meek and misunderstood mother, Eve, joins forces with a determined detective to find her daughter at all costs, even if it shatters an already broken family. The question remains. Can they save Mia from this hideous nightmare?

This is the debut novel of Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) graduate, Mary Kubica. It's being compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, and the similarities are apparent but not identical. This novel stands on its own. The chapters alternate between past and present with three narrators, and once you understand the pattern, it is an engrossing, often exhilarating ride. Mia's harrowing tale takes unexpected twists and turns and not until the last few pages does the reader discover the smoking mirror.

Add this mesmerizing and intricately written suspense novel to your summer reading list.