The Good Good-bye

The Good Good-bye

by Carla Buckley

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  On her way to her nineteenth wedding anniversary celebration, Natalie Falcone leaves the struggling restaurant she owns with her brother-in-law, Vince.  She doesn't speak to him on her way out; they haven't spoken in months.  Out on the sidewalk, she gets a phone call every mother dreads: It's from a hospital emergency room in the town where her daughter, Arden, attends college.  Arden's been in a fire, along with Natalie's niece, Rory-Vince's daughter and Arden's best friend.

Natalie rushes to the hospital and learns that both Arden and Rory lie unconscious, and that another student has died in the blaze.  The police suspect arson.

As the investigation mounts, Natalie struggles to piece together the elusive details of Arden's and Rory's freshman year.  Growing up, Rory was charming, popular, and charismatic, while Arden was artistic, perceptive, and reserved.  They were different yet inseparable, more like sisters than cousins.  But the case unearths a different portrait-of a complex friendship, a love triangle, a fight, and a girl who was struggling more than anyone realized.  To discover what really happened that tragic night, Natalie's and Vince's families must confront the one truth that ultimately emerges: Nothing is ever exactly what it seems.

from the book jacket

Review:  I really enjoyed this book as I read it and it kept me reading with its use of suspense.  I had to know how the fire started and what really happened to Arden and Rory.  But the more I think about the book, my opinion of the book drops.  All throughout the book I felt like I was supposed to know more than I already knew but nothing was said outright so everything was to be inferred.  I never knew if my inferential thought was correct though as it was not confirmed by the end.  There were some secrets about Arden that we learn about in the book but yet we do not understand her motivation behind her actions.  The same goes for Rory.  Natalie and Rory are supposed to be best friends, more like sisters, but I found it hard to like Rory because she is portrayed as taking advantage of Arden at every turn with Arden not doing a thing about it.  I don't understand by Arden needed to stay friends with Rory.  That is just one unexplained situation in the book.  There were just too many secrets in this book.

Rating: 3 stars