Book Review: The Girl in Kellers Way by Megan Goldin
Aussie Megan Goldin has found a fair bit of popularity with her later books, The Escape Room and The Night Swim, but I found The Girl in Keller’s Way to be a pretty solid debut.
Okay, it’s not perfect. It follows too many of the ‘rules’ of this genre for my liking. That is, we get two different narrators, possible victim/suspect Julie West and detective Mel Carter; one of the narrators may or may not be reliable; and one of the narrators is obsessed with sex. (Is there anyone in real life who truly thinks the only indicator of a happy marriage is constant wild sex? Ack!)
My other big beef is the title. Why, oh why, do publishers insist on copying each other’s titles (and covers) ad nauseam. We do not need any more ‘girls’ in titles. Neither Mel or Julie are girls. Nor is the victim found in Keller’s Way.
But I should get onto the good points. Goldin’s writing style was excellent. The whole book was really easy to read and the narrative flowed well. Everything made some sort of sense and there was no overkill when it came to flashbacks or other corny techniques. The leads were not carbon copies of each other either, which can often be an issue when multiple narrators are used. And there are enough twists, turns and cliffhangers along the way to keep the reader turning pages.
Even though Goldin is Australian, she set the book in the US. I was torn on this point. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t just set it in Aus, apart from our strict gun control. The setting, in the end, didn’t influence the story much at all.
Although it didn’t have the Gone Girl type bombshell, I quite enjoyed the ending. It was unexpected and made me pause and question some plot conflicts and their resolutions. Oh, and Goldin never had to resort to my most-loathed book fail – the info dump at the end. So, bonus points for that!
Overall, I would recommend the book, especially for fans of the genre. It’s just as good, if not better, than a lot of the most popular books in the domestic noir/psychological thriller arena. It certainly never put me off Goldin and I will definitely pick up her other two titles soon.
4 out of 5
readwritewish 