Just the Nicest Couple: A Novel

I read Just The Nicest Couple for an upcoming meeting of my book club. The overarching story is about a successful surgeon who is missing and may or may not been dead. The story is told from two points of view - that of the surgeon's wife, and that of the wife's co-worker's husband.

This is a quick read - I'll give it that. But I spent a lot of time tearing my hair out at how absolutely stupid its characters were. Failing to file a missing person report, horrendous mishandling of evidence, and nonsensical breaking and entering are just some of the problems with the story. I basically tore my way through the book just so I could be rid of these people and substandard story construction.

Could not connect to the characters and the story dragged. The sentence structure was also bizarrely sophomoric to the point of making me wonder if she had a ghost writer for this one. I’m mostly disappointed because this author’s other books have been amazing (especially Local Woman Missing and The Other Mrs.) and because I looked forward to this book coming out for months. Comparatively, this is definitely not her best.

I’m an avid Kubica reader though sometimes her books are hit or miss. Just The Nicest Couple is a miss. This story follows a group of friends and is told from multiple perspectives. It’s an easy read but slightly predictable and cliche.

Lily Scott and Nina Hayes are friends from work. They teach high school in a suburb of Chicago, Lily in her algebra classes and Nina teaching honors English. They met when Lily started, Nina acting as a mentor to her when she was taking on her first year of full-time teaching. The mentorship turned into a genuine friendship, with the occasional dinner with their husbands.

Christian comes home from work one day to find Lily in the living room, barely able to move. When he asks if she’s okay, she says that she is, but it’s clear that she’s lying. But he doesn’t want to push her for an answer. She’s pregnant again, and her past miscarriages has him worrying that there is something wrong with the baby, but he chooses to give Lily some space to find her voice. It’s not until the next evening that she’s able to talk about what is on her mind.

The previous night, she had gone to a local park after work, Langley Woods, and she had run into Nina’s husband Jake there. They had walked on the main path for a while, but then he persuaded her to veer off onto a side path, into the woods. He had seen some deer, he’d said, and wanted to show her. But once they got away from the main path, Jake had tried to kiss her, to force her to do things she didn’t want to. She’d been thrown to the ground. She managed to grab a rock and hit him in order to get away, but there had been a lot of blood. She was worried about what could have become of him.

And now he’s missing.

Christian is appalled by Jake’s behavior, but he starts to worry about how this could affect Lily and the baby. He finds the clothes she had been wearing and sets them aside, to get rid of them. He has Lily go back to Langley Woods to the place where it happened, to see if they can find any evidence that might lead back to her. They find the blood on the ground but nothing more.

Meanwhile, Nina is increasingly worried about Jake. He hadn’t been home for days. They’d had a big argument the night before, with both of them saying really hurtful things, so Nina wasn’t surprised when he didn’t show up at home the next night or wouldn’t answer any calls or texts. But when the head of surgery at the hospital called and told her that he hadn’t shown up for any of his surgeries, Nina knows something is very wrong. Jake had worked hard all through medical school to become a neurosurgeon. He might shut her out for a bit from anger, but he would never abandon his job. She files a police report.

As Christian and Lily scramble to try to cover Lily’s tracks, they find themselves turning inward and hiding, afraid of what the truth might eventually reveal about Lily’s actions that day. Meanwhile, Nina is becoming increasingly worried about Jake’s safety. He’s not used any of his credit cards or withdrawn any cash from their account. His phone just goes to voicemail. And then she finds out that the gun he had kept in the safe in his home office was gone.

All Nina has now is her mother, whose macular degeneration is getting worse, and her friends from work, Lily and fellow English teacher Ryan. Will she be able to find the answers she’s searching for, or will she discover that the people she trusted most are the ones who have caused her life to break apart?

Master of suspense Mary Kubica is back with Just the Nicest Couple, a tale of knife-edge suspense that keeps you awash in anxiety and wondering just who is telling the truth at any given moment. The contrast of the couples, Christian and Lily versus Nina and Jake, is a teeter-totter of half-truths and misdirection, until the end.

Just the Nicest Couple is told in alternating viewpoints of Christian and Nina, so you get an inside glimpse of both couples without getting the whole story of what happened to these four people. As the truths slowly come to light and the secrets are revealed, we find out that there is so much more going on with these characters than even they realized, and the tale finally comes full circle. But until that point, I was on pins and needles, wanting to know more and having to keep reading to find out the real story. I really enjoyed this thriller, and I could not stop turning the pages until I finally got to the end.

Egalleys for Just the Nicest Couple were provided by Park Row through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Mini synopsis: Nina’s husband goes missing. Christian’s wife is the last person to see him. Or was she?

Okay so the rant. Not a single mysterious or surprising thing happened. I think the fault lies in the way the story is told. It’s multiple perspective, with the perspectives coming from opposite sides of these 2 couples. For example, Nina is worrying someone’s breaking into her house, but the next chapter we get Christian barking into said house. So it’s not ever giving a suspenseful moment bc it’s immediately explained.

SLIGHT SPOILERS
Another thing that really annoyed me was Christian goes on a full rant about how he’s “taking care of the problem women” on and on about how he does it & disposes of her, only for one second late for him to say that’s how I’m imagining it but I never do it?!?! I’m sorry what? So annoying! The big twist you could see (👀) from a mile away 🙄

I very much enjoyed LOCAL GIRL MISSING and THE OTHER MRS, however after this read I won’t be picking up any more of this author’s books.

Very simplistic story. I know there’s only so many mysteries in the world and only so many ways to tell them but this one read as if it was written by someone else and it was a first draft. By page 100 I have figured it all out, and been told the same things a few times. The book alters between chapters by Nina and chapters by Christian - and Nina told me a few times her Mom is currently 62 and several times about her macular degeneration; Christian reiterated his inability to live without his wife a few times. It just was very basic writing.

Overall this book is a disappointment. I pass books on to a solid rotation of friends and family before they get donated somewhere- this is not a book I will pass on to even the most avid reader in my circle. It’s not just the unsurprising story - it is the redundant story telling throughout.

The Queen of suspense, Mary Kubica, (fav author), returns following Local Woman Missing with her latest, JUST THE NICEST COUPLE—a gripping twisty domestic suspense where the line between right and wrong is blurred, and no one is as they appear.

Two couples, two close friends, one missing husband…A whodunnit domestic suspense thriller that will keep you guessing until the final page!

Meet the nicest couple—Lily and Christian Scott. Lily is an algebra teacher at the local Chicago suburban school, and her husband is a market research analyst. They have had several miscarriages, and she is currently pregnant.

Nina Hayes is an English teacher at the same school as Lily and is married to Jake, a surgeon. They are friends.

Nina is distracted and does not have time to be there for her husband's every whim. Her mother is going blind, and they recently found a mass in her left breast. They will need a biopsy to see if it is malignant or benign.

Jake and Nina argue, and he leaves. Jake is not so nice. He does not like her spending so much time with her mom and the stresses of his patients. She thinks he is just blowing off steam; however, he does not answer his phone, and then the hospital calls and says he has not been in several days later.

Now she is worried. He is missing. There is an investigation. Where is he?

From the POVs of Christian and Nina, we learn about an episode in Langley Woods. Lily comes clean (is she telling the whole truth?) with Christian that Jake tried to attack her, and to protect herself, she hit him with a rock and ran.

Christian will do anything to protect his wife and his unborn child. To do so, they must go to the trails and see if they can find the body or any evidence. However, they cannot find him or any evidence. However, his car is parked there, so they must move it, which involves Christian breaking into Nina's house to get the key. This involves a lot of sneaking around and risk-taking.

Later the body is found in the woods by the authorities. They find the car. He was shot. However, Lily knows she did not kill him. So who murdered Jake? Lily also does not think about her lost earring.

There is a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on between Christian and Nina. Nina thinks Christian killed him. But she needs proof.

Everyone is a suspect. Suspicion, betrayal, and dark secrets abound —Hidden just beneath the surface of a seemingly perfect suburban life. How far do we go to protect the family?

Kubica keeps you turning the pages into the wee hours of the morning. What a treat! I read it in one sitting. Readers will become engrossed in the intense mystery. What goes on behind closed doors? Do we know the people close to us as well as we think?

The author has a talent for maneuvering multi-storylines and going behind closed doors in suburban neighborhoods, and unraveling dark secrets, lies, and deceit. Well-crafted, you will not anticipate the surprisingly satisfying conclusion.

I have been a fan of the Mary's since her debut and have read every book. Each one is 5 Stars and lands on my year's top books. Kubica fans will enjoy this one, as well as fans of author BA Paris.

#JDCMustReadBooks

Mary Kubica never disappoints! Just the Nicest Couple is a domestic thriller that I promise will have you hooked until the very last page! Told in two perspectives, I initially thought those perspectives were an odd combo, but of course after finishing I realized it was a brilliant combination. Mary expertly creates a storyline so intriguing that you won’t be able to put down your kindle. A per usual, there are plenty of twists and turns that will have your jaw hanging wide open—love that! I think it’s best you go into any Mary Kubica novel blind, I never even read the description because I know she’s a master at writing thrillers! Just the Nicest Couple is a 5+++ star novel that I highly recommend to everyone! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC.

I liked it but it was a little slow in places because the case review was going so slow. I could feel the suspense of being on edge with the main characters and I anticipated the ending a little before it was because too many fingers pointed where we expected. Still a good read and I’d recommend it to a reader that isn’t overly critical about slow spots.

Disappointing. I had most of it figured out immediately. Plenty of plot holes and (not the author’s fault) typos and errors. Waste of money.