Good Bad Girl

Can a bad girl be good?  Furthermore, is what we call bad always bad? In Alice Feeney’s newest book Good Bad Girl, the answer may be: It’s all relative.

This is the story of two mothers, two daughters and two very eventful Mothers Days. On Mother’s Day twenty years ago, one baby girl was stolen from her buggy never to be found. On this Mother’s Day, in the present, one woman is murdered. Could they be connected? DCI Charlotte Chapman is on the case to find out. As she lets each of her three suspects know: There were two murders, three suspects, and one victim.

Edith is an eighty-year-old ex-store detective who’s been shuffled off to a nursing home against her will. She blames her daughter Clio for putting her there. Clio feels she’s doing the best she can and blames her mother for never truly loving her. Neither prefers to communicate with the other.

Patience is an 18-year-old care home employee who’s befriended Edith and her adorable dog, Dickens, who Patience sneaks in for visits with Edith. She also has a strained relationship with her own mother, Frankie, a prison librarian.  Patience left home after a disagreement and hasn’t communicated with Frankie since.

In each woman you see both good and bad.  As truths come to light you see they’ve all made very bad choices in their lives, yet are any of them truly bad? For a story involving crimes committed, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more sympathetic towards the characters involved!

It’s rare that I finish a book and have no complaints, but try as I might, I can’t find a single one. Alice Feeney outdid herself with this, and it’s risen to the top as my new favorite book of hers!  It's a domestic drama/mystery that twists and turns in ways that Feeney has made an art of. It’s also eminently quotable and so insightful regarding women and mother/daughter relationships, that I guess my only complaint is that I couldn’t highlight the MANY wonderful quotes on my Kindle since I listened to it on audio! Who am I kidding? I really can't complain. The audio was amazing.

Speaking of the audio, it was narrated by Stephanie Racine, who always does a brilliant job with Feeney’s books, and the equally impressive Katherine Press. They brought all these fascinating personalities to life and only added to my enjoyment of the story.

I can only sing this book's praises and tell you to check this out if it sounds like a good match! 

★★★★★ 

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley and author Alice Feeney for this ALC to honestly review. It’s out on August 29, 2023.