Gone Girl (Extra book)

I am now in the mode of reading other people’s favorite books before I jump back to the RA Favorite books.  We just hired RAs for our Global sites and our new NYU campus in Brooklyn, so watch for new books soon.  Imagine being married and then one day, your spouse disappears, and you are suspect #1!  Welcome to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  This 2012 New York Times best-selling book is a thriller/mystery which reveals the seemingly solid marriage of Amy and Nick Dunne, but when the two “perspectives” of the relationship are shared (in the voice of each character) we learn it is far from the ideal.  Two former journalists, who lose their jobs, move from their posh apartment in NYC to a non-descript Midwestern city in Missouri.  Nick comes home one afternoon, on the day of his honeymoon, to realize that his wife is missing and the house looks like it has been broken into.  After numerous hours of waiting around, thinking Amy will return, he contacts the police and what they find is a “guilty” husband who has forgotten that the day was their anniversary and has no alibi!  Why is he in this predicament?  He has been in an extra-marital affair with one of his former students (he was teaching journalism in a local community college).  The story twists and turns with new revelations about the relationship that has gone sour, even where Amy has set a trap to indict Nick as her assumed murderer.  Whenever you think you understand what is happening, there are more strange twists.  I won’t reveal the conclusion of this mystery, but needless to say it is warped and brings back memories of the great marriage thriller, Fatal Attraction.  But in this one you’ll be surprised as to whom is “boiling the rabbit.”  For those who enjoy unpredictable romances gone astray, you will love this one.  It remains a twisted, well-written story that reads very quickly, though I actually listened to it.  I hear it is coming out in movie version next year with Ben Affleck as Nick.  I’d pick up this one before it comes out in movies.  Saying I enjoyed it would not capture the experience exactly correctly, but was a book worth reading.