Tuesday, August 21, 2012

GONE GIRL Audio Edition






    We understand that Oregon native Julia Whelan fell in love with acting when at the age of six she went to a Shakespeare festival.  That love and enthusiasm for her profession is clearly seen in the many television shows in which she has appeared.  This super charged thriller gives her one more opportunity to showcase her talent, and she does so in spades.

    Pairing her with film and television actor Kirby Heyborne was certainly a coup as together they inhabit the personas of Amy and Nick Dunne, a married couple who are not at all as they seem.

    To friends, neighbors and the world they’re a perfect couple, happily married and in love with each other.  Once an about-town New York couple they’ve retreated to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, after he loses his job.  Once there Nick partners with his sister, Margo, in buying a local bar.  He also teaches a creative writing course at a nearby college.  Amy keeps wearing a contented happy face although she secretly dislikes the town, and as we later learn from her diary excerpts she also doesn’t very much like her marriage.  You see, we have to learn about Amy from her diary because as our story opens it is her fifth wedding anniversary and she has disappeared.

    At first friends and neighbors join in sympathy for Nick and in searches for Amy.  But then as Nick’s reaction to her disappearance is not what they would have expected people begin to question and eventually turn against him.  He has told lies.  He has taken one of his students as his mistress.  It is also true that his marriage was not all he and Amy presented it to be.  The detectives investigating the case begin probing deeper and deeper.

    No spoilers here the denouement gives one shivers, it is totally surprising yet in retrospect not unexpected.  After already having established a record of reader-pleasing tales Gillian Flynn has again crafted a singularly unforgettable story.

    Enjoy!

    - Gail Cooke

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