The Good Girl - Michelle Dunne - ★★★★.½

AUTHOR: Michelle Dunne

GENRE: Crime Thriller

PUBLICATION DATE: March 7, 2024

RATING: 4.5 stars

In a Nutshell: Relished a crime thriller after ages! The fun part is that we know the identity of the “criminal” right from the start, but the journey through the plot is still gripping and contains enough surprises. Very dark and disturbing – too many triggers, so make sure you are in a good headspace before you pick it up.

Plot Preview:

Twenty-seven-year-old Grace Murphy is a barista at a local café in Cork. Grace has only one concern in life now: to take care of her younger sister Amber and provide her with a clean house and hot meals, two things they never had as kids.

Everyone in the neighbourhood knows of their troubled childhood, including Det. Garda Jerry Hughes, who keeps an eye out for the sisters. What no one knows, however, is that Grace has a man cable-tied to a chair in her house, and he is not in good condition.

The story comes to us from the third person perspectives of Grace and several other characters from the present timeline and separate flashback chapters.

“Standing on her doorstep with her brown cardigan pulled tightly across her chest, Grace Murphy didn’t look like someone who had a man, sitting in his own filth, slowly dying in her spare room.”

When a book begins with this sentence, you know that there is no way it is going to be a relaxing read. (Unless you relax with gruesome stories – No issues if you do. I won’t yuck your yum!) The very first chapter gives us a creepy look at how macabre the man’s situation is, and how apathetic Grace is to his suffering. It is easy to slot Grace immediately as a devious woman with no conscience or moral compass. Then comes chapter two, and we see the same Grace going about her work as a barista, friendly and concerned towards her customers, and loving towards her younger sister. In other words, it is tough to figure out whether to root for Grace or for the unknown man fighting for his life.

That’s all I’ll tell you about the core plot and the main character as this story is best discovered by going in blind.

Here’s what else might help you take a call on this book:

➾ The goings get trickier and murkier with every subsequent chapter, but the pace doesn’t slack. I completed this read within a day – I don’t remember the last time I did that!

➾ That said, I had to take tiny breaks after every few chapters because this is NOT an easy read. Think of every horrifying trigger possible, and it is there in this book. While some of the worse ones are left off the page, what is written is also nightmare-inducing. All the triggers are spoilers, so I won’t be detailing them. Just know, you need to have a strong stomach (and preferably one that’s empty as well) for this novel.

➾ There are several other impactful characters, with most of them being not good or bad but in the moral grey area. Jerry Hughes was the easiest to like, and he’ll be one of my favourite fictional police officers. Geriatric Maggie is another strong character.

➾ Some of the reveals were easy for me to guess, while some took me by surprise. But as the very first sentence tells you about Grace’s secret, this book isn’t a WHOdunnit but a HOWdunnit and a WHYdunnit. There are enough suspenseful scenes, but it isn’t a regular suspense thriller.

➾ Quite a few scenes left me teary-eyed. I don’t think I have ever felt weepy while reading a crime thriller – this is a first!

➾ The author’s being from Cork works as an advantage for depicting a truthful, albeit grim, portrayal of the location. The local positives as well as problems are covered well.

➾ The third person narration suits the plot excellently as we are spared from extensive inner monologues. Because we see the story from multiple perspectives, we also get to see the jigsaw pieces from various sides, though we may not recognise the whole picture immediately. Once things come together, it is like a mental explosion – boom!

➾ The ending!!! BOOM! In CAPS!

When I first transitioned to reading adult fiction many decades ago, my favourite thriller author was Sidney Sheldon. Very few authors come close to him in delivering an impactful journey through a book even once we have figured out the twists. All these years, I hadn’t read a single crime thriller that replicated the high generated by Sheldon’s novels. Until this one! Just like Sheldon’s works, the book is the perfect combo of thriller and drama.

As common in contemporary thrillers, there are a few convenient coincidences and also a couple of minor plot points I wanted more clarity on, but these are so trivial in comparison with the rest of the powerful story that I can easily ignore the niggles.

Strongly recommended to all those who have a strong stomach for disturbing thrillers. It is choc-a-bloc with triggers, but if you can handle these, what a wild ride! This is going to be one of my 2024 favourites.

My thanks to Bloodhound Books for a complimentary copy of “The Good Girl”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.