Kimberly McCreight burst onto the literary scene in 2013 with her first novel, RECONSTRUCTING AMELIA, which garnered Edgar, Anthony and Alex Award nominations. Many readers, like myself, have been waiting for lightning to strike twice for her, and I believe that time may have come with her latest release, A GOOD MARRIAGE.

To begin with, McCreight is the ideal author to write a story set amongst the upper-class and somewhat elitist residents of Park Slope, Brooklyn. Not only does she and her family currently reside in Brooklyn, she also attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She literally speaks the language of her characters, taking individuals who might be seen as one-dimensional, vapid and occasionally morally suspect and turning them into highly complex people with multiple facets to their personalities.

"More than just a solid work of domestic suspense, A GOOD MARRIAGE will make you question the very concept of marriage and how even the most insignificant secret could tear down the walls that couples put up to keep their secrets from everyone they know."

A GOOD MARRIAGE is told from the point of view of different characters while stepping back and forth along a timeline. When we are introduced to a voice in the Prologue, that individual speaks directly to the reader by imploring: “I never meant for any of this to happen.... I didn't kill anyone.... You know that. You know me better than anyone.” When you have various people sharing the narrative voice, it gives a thriller writer a lot of room to play tricks on the audience. It will be a long while before we learn who that first voice was and what he or she meant for us to believe or question.

Our protagonist is Lizzie Kitsakis, a defense attorney working long hours for the law firm Young & Crane. She has done good work and is respected by her boss, but has never had a high-profile case before. That all changes when she receives a phone call from someone at Rikers Island, which is home to one of the darkest and most dangerous prisons on the planet. Surprisingly, the caller is Zach Grayson, an old law school chum of Lizzie's who she has not spoken to since their academic days. All she knows is that he was always somewhat odd and off-putting, but since graduation had built himself up to multi-millionaire status with his Palo Alto logistics startup company, ZAG, Inc.

Zach is being held in Rikers for striking a police officer. However, the circumstances under which this occurred are not what you would think. He had come home to his upscale Park Slope brownstone to find his wife, Amanda, brutally bludgeoned to death. He called 911 and was present as the paramedics worked with futility on her. When one of the police officers attempted to move Zach from the ugly scene, he pulled his arm away quickly, striking a detective in the face and breaking his nose. That detective claimed that Zach had known exactly what he was doing, and thus brought about charges that found him being held without bail. In true Rikers fashion, Zach already had been brutalized a few times prior to calling Lizzie.

Of course, Zach wants Lizzie to represent him. Initially she states that she is not the right person for the job, but would represent him at his first hearing to see that he is allowed a temporary release while she seeks out a more suitable attorney. In the meantime, she begins doing some groundwork to find out exactly what happened to Amanda. Obviously, Zach would be considered the prime suspect as they had no children at home, and there was no reason to believe that anyone else was in their apartment at the time of the slaying.

As the story drives forward, and this one does so without letting up on the gas, chapters are devoted to Amanda in the days leading up to the night of her murder. We also see various testimony from the murder trial, where witnesses are questioned by prosecutor Wendy Wallace. This direct testimony really makes for interesting reading, and each successive one will lean you in a different direction and toward another possible guilty party.

More than just a solid work of domestic suspense, A GOOD MARRIAGE will make you question the very concept of marriage and how even the most insignificant secret could tear down the walls that couples put up to keep their secrets from everyone they know. These factors take what could have been a standard mystery and elevate it to top-notch thriller status. Everyone has secrets, but which of these characters could be driven to murder to keep theirs from being revealed? Hang on tight as I'm sure those answers will be real eye-openers!