And I don’t even like thrillers.

I often read books solely for the journey; to discover the landscape and follow the language that swirls characters to life before my eyes. So when I only give this book 3 stars it is because the language was severely lacking for me. It was pragmatic – often deftly switching in tone, but always in order to illustrate points about the various characters in the book; admitted it was well done, but also felt very conscious to me.

This book I read for the plot. It is equal parts whodunnit and a view into a marriage that fell apart. The setup is mundane: an all American gorgeous writer marries a blonde beautiful laid-back psychology major turned quiz-writer. Their life looks shiny on the outside, she is laidback and he in turn adores her.

But the morning of their 5th anniversary Nick returns to find his wife missing, signs of struggle in the living room. This is the beginning of a long police investigation where Nick reveals him self to be an untrustworthy narrator (a clever choice!) and we follow Amy, in diary form, from the beginning of their relationship. In doing this we get a sense of the marriage falling apart long before this morning.

There are of course plot twists and they are of the good kind – where the reader is allowed to see the clues and when the twist comes it all lines up. The downside is, of course, that some of the twist may be discovered beforehand. But since there are a handful even the cleverest reader may be surprised.

I will probably not ever read this book again, but I will definitely pass it on to someone else. It’s a new, clever story that I’d never seen before. And I don’t even like thrillers.