Gone Girl: A Novel - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385347774 ISBN 13: 9780385347778

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2012

Synopsis

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media-as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents-the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter-but is he really a killer?

About this title

Review:

Flynn, an extraordinarily good writer, plays her readers with the finesse and delicacy of an expert angler. She wields her unreliable narrators to stunning effect, baffling, disturbing and delighting in turn, practically guaranteeing an immediate reread once her terrifying, wonderful conclusion is reached... an early contender for thriller of the year, and an absolute must-read. (Alison Flood THE OBSERVER)

These voices are wonderfully authentic, to the point where the reader becomes a gawker at the full-spectrum of marital dysfunction. Excellent. (John O'Connor THE GUARDIAN)

Gone Girl is superbly constructed, ingeniously paced and absolutely terrifying... a Five-star suspense mystery. (AN Wilson READERS' DIGEST)

in this riveting noirish thriller and intense dissection of a marriage, nothing is as it seems. (WOMAN AND HOME)

Flynn keeps the accelerator firmly to the floor, ratcheting up the tension with wildly unexpected plot twists, contradictory stories and the tantalising feeling that nothing is as it seems. Deviously good. (MARIE CLAIRE)

Read it and stay single. (FINANCIAL TIMES)

funny, cunning thriller... the tale takes some stomach-churning turns, right to its chilling conclusion (PSYCHOLOGIES)

A chilling, stylish read about another unknowable woman (ELLE)

Flynn has created a gripping tale and a page-turner. (LITERARY REVIEW)

Immensely dark and deeply intelligent, Gone Girl is a book about how well one person can truly know another (METRO)

Flynn is a brilliantly accomplished psychological crime writer and this latest book is so dark, so twisted and so utterly compelling that it actually messes with your mind (Carla McKay DAILY MAIL)

You think you're reading a good, conventional thriller and then it grows into a fascinating portrait of one averagely mismatched relationship...Nothing's as it seems - Flynn is a fabulous plotter, and a very sharp observer of modern life in the aftermath of the credit crunch (Kate Saunders THE TIMES)

Flynn's portrait of a woman trying to please an impossible husband is subtly drawn, but there are hints that all is not as it seems. One version of events hides another in a novel that cleverly manipulates the reader (Joan Smith SUNDAY TIMES)

definitely a contender for thriller of the year... Flynn is, without a doubt, at the front of the pack of American thriller writers. (Doug Johnstone THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

In what is so much more than a straightforward crime novel (with a mid-story twist so shocking you'll drop the book), Flynn unpicks the minutiae of the couple's personalities and relationship (EASY LIVING)

A chilling tale of a hip, New York couple's failing marriage: smart, suspenseful and brilliantly written, Gone Girl is a class act (THE INDEPENDENT)

a terrifically intelligent thriller with a gasp-inducing twist (GOOD HOUSEKEEPING)

she skillfully manages to sustain tension and uncertainty to the end, as well as presenting a beautiful portrait of marriage disintegration (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES)

This is Flynn's third novel and she's more than found her voice, creating taut, thrilling, deeply intense narratives about characters very much on the edge (Henry Sutton DAILY MIRROR)

a near-masterpiece. Flynn is an extraordinary writer who, with every sentence, makes words do things that other writers merely dream of" (Sophie Hannah SUNDAY EXPRESS)

Ms Flynn's latest novel of psychological suspense will confound anyone trying to keep up with her quicksilver mind and diabolical rules of play (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)

Just about everyone I meet, and everyone on Twitter, is telling me it's brilliant, so I can't wait to see what the fuss is all about. (S.J Watson SUNDAY EXPRESS)

Gripping thriller: Nick's wife, Amy, is missing and he's a suspect. The story is told by Nick, then Amy, but who's telling the truth? (ESSENTIALS)

A brilliant switchback ride, you'll beg others to read it so you can discuss it with them (John Williams IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Gone Girl confirms that Gillian Flynn is the smartest new crime writer for years. (John Williams MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Toxic marriage simmers in this thriller with a gasp-inducing twist. (GRAZIA)

The set-up is simple: girl goes missing, husband looks increasingly suspect. But there's much more going on beneath the surface of this fiendishly clever thriller" (VOGUE)

Single-handedly defines a genre of Media Gothic (Brooke Magnanti TATLER)

Exhilarating and creepy, it has sent me rushing off to her other novels. (Tracey Thorn NEW STATESMAN)

a brilliant, darkly comic tale (Laura Wilson THE GUARDIAN)

One of the most popular thrillers of the year is also one of the smartest... Flynn's book cleverly outpaces its neo-noir trappings and consistently surprises the reader. (FINANCIAL TIMES)

A completely gripping account of a dysfunctional (is there any other sort?) marriage. (Rachel Johnson METRO)

Read Gone Girl: The Thriller of 2012... Flynn relentlessly plays with her reader, dangling hints and hushing up truths through two narrators who become more and more unreliable as the plot unravels. (Jessica Whiteley STYLIST)

A stunning psychological thriller to send a chill through the heart of every married couple... Read it now, it is that good. (Geoffrey Wansell DAILY MAIL)

An utterly gripping thriller (EMERALD STREET)

Gone Girl should be the big poolside read this year. Fresh out om paperback, it's a page-turning abduction mystery with an awful lot of twists. (MAIL ON SUNDAY)

A tautly written thriller about the unravelling of a marriage that is deservedly topping the bestseller charts. (THE OBSERVER)

The story of a husband searching for his vanished wife has everything - psychological acuity, humour, an unflagging pace and more twists than you could hope for in your most serpentine dreams...a sumptuous, satisfying read. (STYLIST)

The story-telling is incredibly compelling, with the cunning opening mystery soon turning down unpredictable routes, while the characters are superbly believable. No wonder it's the book that everyone seems to be reading. (Boyd Hilton HEAT MAGAZINE)

If you haven't yet caught up with this word-of-mouth bestseller - about a woman's mysterious disappearance and the secrets she and her husband are keeping - get hold of it soon. It really does live up to the hype. (WOMAN MAGAZINE)

I'm currently reading Gone Girl, a brilliant novel about how we never quite know the people we fall in love with. It's one of those novels that you discuss endlessly with your closest friends. (Sharleen Spiteri, lead singer in Texas)

This thriller is the must-read of the year. (THE SUN)

(GONE GIRL) turned the rules of your average psychological thriller inside-out...it's breathtaking (THE TIMES)

Book Description:

The art of marriage truly is the art of war in the new novel from the CWA award-winning author of SHARP OBJECTS and DARK PLACES.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0385347774
• ISBN 13: 9780385347778
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576
• Editor: Flynn Gillian