Have you read A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight and are looking for a plot summary, a synopsis, or spoilers? Then you’ve come to the right place! Come join the Spoiler Discussion for A Good Marriage!
Plot Summary for A Good Marriage
First, let’s do a brief synopsis of the events in The Good Marriage. Obviously there are spoilers ahead. Below that will be the spoiler discussion!
Lizzie, a young lawyer who lives with her boyfriend in Park Slope, Brooklyn, gets a frantic call from her friend Zach. Zach needs legal help as he was arrested for assaulting a police office at the scene of his wife Amanda’s murder.
Amanda was found dead after a neighborhood swingers party, held after a group of parents at a Brooklyn private school all sent their kids to summer camp.
The school records at the school have also been breached and parents blackmailed.
Lizzie goes to Zach and Amanda’s house, which has been broken into. She finds Amanda’s journals and an ovulation test.
At her own home, Lizzie finds a mysterious earring in her boyfriend Sam’s bag.
Lizzie finds out from Amanda’s journals that Amanda had a stalker. This was possibly her father, as she was sexually abused by him.
Maude, the party host, says she was with Zach at the time of the murder.Zach denies sleeping with Maude.
Sam doesn’t know whose earring was in his bag. He has substance abuse issues and memory problems.
Lizzy learns that though Zach was supposedly a successful tech guy, he was actually broke.
Amanda’s father is dead. She killed him years ago after he attacked her best friend Carolyn and tried to molest her.
Zach was the hacker. He was blackmailing many parents at the school (because he needed money) and also blackmailing Lizzie, who had lied to her employer, to be his lawyer.
Who was the killer in A Good Marriage?
Amanda was killed by Kerry, Sarah’s husband, a neighbor who was also obsessed with her and stalking her. Kerry and Sarah were also parents at the school. Amanda thought it was her father stalking her (even though she’d killed him).
Carolyn is, in fact, dead and has been since Amanda’s father killed Carolyn. Then Amanda killed her father. Amanda seems under the delusion that Carolyn is still alive. She has imagined Carolyn’s entire adult life, complete with a job, and has regular imaginary conversations with her.
Sam goes to rehab.
Spoiler Discussion for A Good Marriage
Wow, there was a LOT going on in A Good Marriage. Maybe a little too much?
I did like the Big Little Lies aspect of this book and I found it slightly similar in format (with the investigators’ reports used at the beginning of each chapter) and the whole “neighborhood with dirty little secrets” element.
I think my main issue with this one its I can’t say I liked any of the characters that much, or was very invested in them.
And there was a lot of who doing what to whom when going on. It was a lot: Amanda’s backstory, Zach and Lizzie’s backstory.
Did you think Kerry being the killer kind of came out of nowhere? He wasn’t a very major character.
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I just finished reading this book after having left it off for a while back. I did decide to finish once I read your spoilers as they sounded kind of interesting and wanted to know how Kerry ended up coming into the mix. To be honest the way she died and how he technically is at fault, for me was not the best ending I thought it wasn’t the best choice and I feel like that kind of ruined or will not really ruin but lowered my rating of the book
I agree with you. I didn’t love the ending of this one at all.
There was no wrap up of Amanda’s father and BFF Carolyn being dead. Did I miss something??
Hi Molly! I read the book a while back but I don’t think so.
Although this book was very complex like you mentioned, I really enjoyed it. You really have to pay attention and focus when reading it. I enjoyed this aspect because the reason I wanted to read the book was to take my mind off work and my busy single mom life. I actually really liked Lizzie’s character. She was very relatable with the whole seeming like she had her life together, but still had major issues and secrets. I so often look at others and think where did I go wrong in my life? But I know people like Lizzie are everywhere. I do think Kerry being the killer was a little out of left field. But it didn’t ruin the book for me. I thought it was either Seb, Sarah, or Sam. I like the twist of Amanda being mentally ill and Zack being a total douche. I admit that he had me fooled for a while. I was super happy Sam wasn’t the killer and that he is going to rehab for the sake of their marriage. This was the first book I read by this author and fully intend to read others!
Hi Caitlin – that’s why I love thrillers and suspense – they really take your mind off everything! Glad you enjoyed this one and I hope you will join us for future discussions. There are some great books coming up in January – if you subscribe to my weekly email you’ll get the list!
Awesome! I believe I did subscribe. That was my intention so please let me know if I didn’t do it right.
Thanks so much! I will take a look. I’m excited to talk about more books in 2022
You know what really bothers me? Amanda was stalked and receiving calls before. They never say who that was…. Did I miss something? Or are we just assuming that her previous stalker was a hallucination? I enjoyed the book while I was reading it but didn’t feel a sense of closure at the end. We don’t hear about Case at all either. Poor little guy
I’m trying to figure out what/who Carolyn was, since she was dead. Can someone help me?
Hi Abby! Carolyn and Amanda were best friends from childhood. Amanda’s father killed Carolyn when they were twelve and then Amanda killed her father. After that Amanda imagines that Carolyn is still alive and makes up conversations with her, etc. Thanks for pointing out how confusing the Carolyn thing is – I have edited the synopsis to explain. Most of my newer spoiler posts have character lists, but this is an older one. Hope you’ll stop by again!
I really enjoyed the book but thought it ended too abruptly. Thanks to these posts I think I get some of the things I wasn’t sure about. I am still wanting to know whether anybody in law enforcement was buying Kerry’s claim that it was an accident.