January 2025

If you want a book with twists, then Alice Feeney’s BEAUTIFUL UGLY is the one for you. We open on a happy note as Grady Green has his first New York Times bestseller, and he is ready to celebrate with his wife, Abby Goldman. But Abby goes missing that night. She had been on the phone with her husband just before she disappeared.

A distraught Grady falls into a deep depression and is unable to write. Grief has overtaken him. His literary agent, Kitty, offers him something that may be his salvation. Her former client, bestselling author Charles Whittaker, left her a cabin on Amberly, a remote island off the coast of Scotland. Grady agrees to go there and write as nothing else seems to be happening for him.

Amberly is an unusual place. There is no cell service or internet. The people are quirky, if not downright strange, beginning with the woman who ferries him to the island. At one point, he sees someone who looks exactly like Abby. How could that be? He’s told that it’s the off-season, and typically no outside visitors are allowed on the island during this time. At The Edge, which is the name of the cabin, he finds a place with the basics and not much else. His attempts at writing go nowhere. But then a loose board reveals a manuscript. It’s Whittaker’s final work, and it never was sent to his agent. So Grady decides to rework the manuscript and submit it to Kitty as his own.

However, there is another bizarre occurrence. Articles that Abby had written keep showing up at Grady’s door. Who is aware of this connection? At the same time, the people on the island continue to stymie him with their odd behaviors, and there seems to be no way off the island.

To say any more may spoil it for you, but I will say that the story has a brilliant twist. It happens after you read some “Before” chapters, which bring you more insight into Abby’s life. There’s a lot here to digest and discuss, including how Alice Feeney once again has demonstrated a real talent for storytelling.