Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

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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 from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. 

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?

HO-LY crap. Holy.crap. Holy crap holy crap holy crap holy crap.

This was my reaction throughout the book. The Entire.Flipping.Book. Gillian Flynn is a master of throwing in another fact or assumption to make you question everything you've thought up to that point. Twist & turn. Twist & turn. Twist & turn. This book makes San Francisco's Lombardi Street look like a straight line. I mean, it's brilliant! Pure.Flipping.Genius.

The book is broken down into three parts, which I think of as Before, During, and After (my brilliance is astounding, I know).

Before: Did Nick kill his wife? Flynn kept me guessing, which I love in a book! I really connected with the characters and went through a range of emotions as this part progressed.

During: H-O-L-Y Crap. Did that just happen???  Talk about extreme. I am amazed at the planning and patience involved. Psycho, but impressive.

After: Someone's going to need a good shrink.

I'm so bummed that the book is over. I want to know what happens next!

I was hooked from the very beginning. RUN--do not walk--to read this book. I borrowed the audiobook from the library and am running over to Amazon to buy the Kindle version right now!