Many psychological thrillers feature unreliable narrators and twists galore, but Aimee Molloy’s GOODNIGHT BEAUTIFUL only seems to have an unreliable narrator. In truth, it’s the reader’s assumptions that are unreliable. And in the first twist, we realize how completely we’ve been snookered.

Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter move to upstate New York so they can be close to Sam’s aging mother, who is in an assisted care facility. Sam grew up in Chestnut Hill. His mother was the school secretary and his father a teacher, until the latter fell in love with an underwear model who also happened to be the heir to a fortune. Sam’s teenage years at the high school were spent as a player, sleeping his way through many of the teens in town.

"This is a lovely and well-put-together story that is qualitatively different from other psychological thrillers and may very well leave you feeling darn near joyful."

Now Sam is a respected therapist, and the beautiful town of Chestnut Hill has many clients eager for a psychologist of his caliber. While Annie is quite capable in her own right, she doesn’t have a full schedule. They take turns visiting Sam’s mother each day, and it seems that their life together is idyllic.

However, Sam doesn’t realize that the air duct in his newly remodeled office travels to an upstairs room where his conversations with his patients --- which include the pharmacist’s unhappy wife and an artist with wandering eyes --- can be heard. Also, he has made the egregious error of counting his chickens before they have hatched, spending a lot of money because he has been relying on a huge sum of cash that he believes he will be getting. But hiding the outrageous bills from Annie is getting difficult, and worrying about money is causing him stress.

When Sam disappears, Annie is convinced that foul play is involved. The chief of police is not so sure. And who has been tipping off the journalists with information that no one else should have had? Has Sam run off and left her like his father left his mother? Or is he in desperate need of rescue? Annie is determined to find out.

Not only is GOODNIGHT BEAUTIFUL an engrossing story, we grow to really like Sam and Annie, and we want everything to work out for them. But Molloy masterfully creates one cliffhanger after another, and we keep reading, intent on discovering how it all will turn out. The homage to another author, perhaps the master of thrillers, is superb, but disclosing his or her identity would be a huge spoiler. This is a lovely and well-put-together story that is qualitatively different from other psychological thrillers and may very well leave you feeling darn near joyful.