Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

I originally picked this book up as I've seen a lot of positive feedback about Alice Feeney's work, but never read one for myself.

I found this book to have an interesting plot which was unique to many mystery books I've read in the past and it had a lot of twists along the way. Although the action did take perhaps a bit too long to come into effect, when it finally got to the climax it was gripping and compelling. I liked how the story began with multiple different mysteries (the care home, the stolen baby, the runaway teen etc) and how they all began to merge into one intense storyline was very well planned by the author. Clearly a lot of thought went into weaving this intricate web of deception and it showed.

The characters were well constructed. Each character had their own POV at different points throughout the book which is always a feature I enjoy in a mystery novel. As the book went on, it became clear that everyone had secrets they were hiding from each other. The author did a great job at diving into the minds of each character whilst also hiding just enough from the reader to keep us guessing.

Overall I think this story was well-written with a great plot and very interesting characters. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alice Feeney for the ARC.

Well I must admit this wasn't quite what I was expecting.

This is the story of 4 women: Frankie, Patience, Edith and Clio.

The story starts with a woman taking a baby to the supermarket. She is overwhelmed and tired and distracted by a friend. When she looks round at the pushchair again, she finds that the baby is missing. Screaming the babies name she runs round the shop trying to find her before collapsing - because she knows who has taken the baby,

Fast forward 19 years and we meet the first of our four characters. Frankie works in a prison library. Clearly an anxiety sufferer she counts things to make herself feel better. She counts steps between doors and cars on the roads. Today is her last day at the prison but no one knows that she is leaving - it's not that she has resigned, it's just they won't want her back when they find out what she has done....

Next up is Patience, 18 years old and working as a cleaner/carer in an old person's home. She is friends with the lady in Room 13 and has tried to encourage her to leave her room. She has secretly adopted the old lady's dog and smuggles him in to the care home each day so the lady can spend time with him. Patience is not her real name, it is the name she gave herself when she ran away from home a few months ago and now she lives in the attic above an art gallery.

Edith is the old lady in Room 13. She is friends with Patience and has given her a ladybird ring as a gift for being kind to her. A former store detective, she believes that everyone in the care home is crazy - including all the staff, and she is trying to get the Power of Attorney lifted from her daughter so that she can leave here and go back to her own home. She has even managed to engage a 'no win no fee' solicitor to act on her behalf. Her only other friend at the Care Home - May, died some weeks previously and Edith believes that May was murdered because she believed that the care home manager was killing the patients for cash from their relatives.

Clio is Edith's daughter. She is a therapist who lives in a large town house. She can't afford to keep paying the fees at Edith's Care Home and has fallen behind on the payments. As she and Edith don't get on, she doesn't want Edith to live with her. Clio is hiding secret heartbreak, mourning the loss of her daughter and the break up of her marriage.

The story kicks off when Edith goes missing from the care home and the body of the manager is found in the elevator with her head bashed in. Just what links all of the people to the care home and who killed the manager?

Spoilers ahead!

I was quite confused with this story as it jumps about from character to character and has some chapters that hark back to when the baby is taken and what happens after that. I didn't much like the characters as none of them felt real - they feel almost 2D. There is even the introduction of a brother for Clio who is not mentioned at all until he suddenly has a purpose in the story - he is such a caricature of a gallery owner it is insane.

The Detective investigating the murder is laughable - it's not her appearance, it's that she speaks in ways that a detective just wouldn't - she announces to each suspect, after telling them what has happened '...and you are suspect number...' It's just ridiculous (she even has links back to the baby abduction as it was her mother who was the investigating detective at the time - her mother who goes on to be Edith's friend May in the care home).

I found the description of prison unbelievable - I am not sure if prisoners would be bought into prison in the afternoon and not given any dinner as they hadn't ordered anything on the computer system the day before and couldn't even order tomorrow's meals as they didn't have a log in for the computer - that just doesn't seem right. As well as the highly implausible circumstances surrounding one of the characters getting arrested for murder and remanded in custody at the prison where Frankie works and even gets placed in a cell with the person who Frankie has asked to help find her daughter.

It was really quite a convoluted story and when I got to the end I had already worked out who all the main players were - with the exception of one, I hadn't seen her reveal coming at all - it felt like it had been shoe horned in to link all the characters together and to give her a reason for the actions that she took.

The murder is also solved - but solved in an implausible way. Footage of the murder was captured on a hidden 'teddy cam' but the teddy was knocked over by the dog during an attempted murder so the footage was incomplete - however, there was enough evidence in the footage to secure a conviction had the detective not been more concerned with making someone pay for the death of her mother....I'm not sure people would be allowed to get away with murder in real life.

All in all, I was left a bit confused and kind of disappointed really though I know some will love this book and call it a thrill ride - for me, I just didn't hit the spot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've really enjoyed the last couple of Alice Feeney books I've read so was expecting good things and I was not disappointed. This book is different from the off, where we actually start as the end, when we find a baby missing, taken from a supermarket. The book is told from different characters points of views and how they may be linked. Set also in a nursing home, when the manager is found murdered it is down to the police to figure out who has done it and why, with a number of suspects it won't be easy for DC Chapman. There we characters I liked and also others not so much, I finished the book really quickly, definite page turner!

Edith lives in a care home.
Patience works there and goes out of her way to look after Edith.
Clio, is Edith's daughter and has put her in the home. she also has an evil brother out to get his hands on his mother's money.
Then there are two murders at the home.
What is the connection? and how does a missing baby 20 years before complete the picture.

Alice Feeney’s debut novel in 2016 blew me away and with everything she has released since, she has pushed the boundaries of the thriller genre and come up with something new. This thriller is loosely constructed on fractious mother-daughter relationships but is so much more. Character-wise, we get eighty year-old Edith, reluctant resident of a nursing home, her estranged daughter Clio, and Edith’s eighteen year-old carer Patience. When another nursing home resident is murdered, the women are forced to engage with each other, and it soon becomes clear that there might be a link to a child abduction case that happened some twenty years earlier. But how difficult will it be to separate factual information from the complex, intricate web of lies that each of the women has constructed over time?

With its nuanced descriptions of broken female relationships, this is Feeney writing at her best. Thoroughly recommended! My thanks go to the publishers and to NetGalley for the fre ARC I received that allowed me to produce this unbiased review.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Alice Feeney fan - she never fails to write a gripping, compelling thriller that I have to see through to the end. This was no different, however it wasn't quite the enthralling read I had come to expect from Alice. Though I think that was more a ME issue than a problem with the book itself.

For the first 30% I honestly had no idea what was going on. The characters were confusing, flipping between four unreliable POVs was a real head wobble to navigate, mixed with the flashbacks in places it was really hard to keep track of what was going on for who. That being said, I enjoyed the twists and turns and although I could see the connections quite early on - Alice Feeney did a cracking job with the slow reveals.

I would still recommend this book - however 'Sometimes I lie' is still unbeatable for me so far!

This is quite a complicated storyline with many characters but the main theme is a baby stolen from a supermarket trip with her grandmother Edith two decades ago. Now we see a family split apart, Edith in a care home and Clio the baby's mother living alone and seemingly reluctantly visiting her mother after putting her there. Patience, a young girl working in the care home has befriended Edith and is secretly looking after her dog but when she is caught by the care home manager apparently stealing from residents she is sacked on the spot. Cue the murder of the manager and we have suspects galore. Clio, who visited Edith that day, Edith as she has disappeared from the home, Patience due to the dismissal and her own mother Frankie who went there that day to try and find Patience as the have be one estranged. Confused? You won't be for long as a cleverly written plot starts to unravel and the truth of the last 20 years begins to be revealed

A great page-turner. When Patience starts working at a care home as a cleaner she has no idea of the events that would follow. Edith is one of the residents, put there by her son and daughter who have no love for her, only resentment and bitterness. All they are interested in is her will. All Edith wants is go home. So when she goes missing fingers point to Patience who has befriended Edith and wants to help her. As truths become clear friendships and families are torn apart. Who is Patience really? Does she even know?
This is another great read from Alice Feeney, full of twists and turns. Highly reommended.

Sincerest thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney feels half-baked and incomplete. Why is July doing this to me?

This novel is a random collection of really good ideas plopped together and forced into a novel. But the individual parts are better than the whole here - not great in a novel, not even for a fun thriller. While Alice Feeney is definitely excellent at twists and turns, the twist in Good Bad Girl is not very good, nor satisfying for that matter. And there were a lot of nice musings about motherhood and morality in this novel but they were only presented in a half-hearted superficial manner. If you like whodunnits and vaguely feministy domestic thrillers, then this may be for you, but nothing has topped "Rock, Paper, Scissors" from Alice Feeney for me.

This is a clever murder mystery story, with the detective having 3 suspects for who murdered the awful manager of an old folk’s home. With everyone’s stories interweaving, it is cleverly written and I shed a tear at the end. If you enjoy modern murder mystery tales, this book is definitely worth reading.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people so good people have to do bad things.

Alice Feeney tells this story of murder and mother daughter relationships from the point of view of four different women. The question is how are they all related? Whose baby was taken? And who committed the murder?

This is a compelling read to work out how everyone is connected and what really happened when. While the pace feels slightly slower than Feeney’s other works, it sucks you in with the many questions you need answers to. The characters may not be overly likeable, but you’ll find yourself rooting for them, sympathising and ultimately understanding what’s made them this way.

The queen of the plot twists does it again. You may think you’ve got it all figured out but there’s one more twist along the way

Twenty years after a baby is stolen, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked.

There are so many characters in this book, it took me a little while to get into it, but once I got to grips with who was who, I really enjoyed it.

You've got Edith, 80 years old and forced into a nursing home, she is desperate to escape.
Patience works in the care home and has a bond with Edith, but neither has been truthful to the other.
Clio is Edith's daughter but doesn't speak to her.
Frankie works in the prison library and has a daughter who went missing last year.

The women are all thrust together and end up party to solving a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they can find the missing link.

I'm a fan of Alice Feeney's books with their twists and turns and this was no exception. Just when you thought you'd worked it out, a plot twist would come along and prove you wrong.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was an entertaining read but I’m afraid that’s all it was for me. Nothing that gripped or excited me, and I was confused with the jumps in time. It just all felt a bit too complicated somehow and there seemed to be lots of repetition. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Alice Feeney has done it again! She's written a suspenseful tale of four women whose paths are linked to each other and to a baby that went missing years ago.

I really liked how the suspense builds in this story while giving us an insight into each of the characters. (I'm being vague because I don't want to give anything away) I found all the characters to be well written and the story to be mostly satisfying.

I didn't see the twists coming and has fun with them.. If you've read and liked her books before, you'll definitely like this too.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan for the e-copy. I appreciate it as always! :)

Thoroughly enjoyed this one! A bit more of a slow burn domestic thriller from Feeney - it took a few chapters to get thoroughly introduced to everyone, but I was quickly looking for clues and putting it all together.

What I love about Feeney’s writing is that you think you have it all figured out and then a little curveball hits and it’s not quite what you expected after all! I did manage to piece some bits of this puzzle together, but what I find wholly satisfying about this story is that there was no was I was ever getting some of the finer details and intricacies of the mystery.

Overall a cracking read, very bingeable and a must for thriller fans.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the RC in return for an unbiased review.
First book by this author I've read and found it to be very enjoyable
Liked the writing style with the story jumping back and fore between present day and the past and weaving the story of how the character's life's are interwoven.
I would have given this book five stars and apologies if I'm being too pedantic but I just felt that some of the events were just too co-incidental so knocking one star off.
No hesitation whatsoever in recommending and personally would certainly read further publications by this author.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This was an interesting one, it had a good storyline and was told from different people perspectives. However, I felt that it lacked the usual twists and thrills from books that the author has written previously. I did like the way all the people were connected and the way it all came together at the end of the story.

I read this over many days, which also tells me that I may not have wanted to pick it up as much as I should have.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

🐞Book Review🐞

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

Twenty years ago on Mother’s Day, a baby girl was stolen from her stroller. Flash forward to the present day and a woman has been murdered in a care home. But after so many years, how are these crimes connected?

Here we follow the perspectives of four women whose lives are ultimately all intertwined. But the question is how? And who amongst them is the good bad girl?

I feel like it’s best to go into this as blind as possible, as to say much would ruin the plot. What I will say, however, is although I did enjoy this one it felt very different compared to Feeney’s previous works. Though marketed as a thriller I found this one to be more of a mystery and far less dark when it came to subject matter! Feeney has always been an absolute master of plot twists and while this did have its share, they felt much more predictable. Having read all of her novels so far, I can say that this definitely was not my favourite but nevertheless, a quick and entertaining read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pick this up if you like cosy mystery vibes, multiple points of view, a nonlinear timeline, short suspenseful chapters, and books that centre around female relationships, especially mother/daughter ones.

Thank you to @panmacmillan for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

@currentlyreading__
Book 53 of 2023

Totally up to date with all of the @alicewriterland right now due to this fabulous arc of 'Good Bad Girl' sent by @netgalley so a big thank you for that. This is published on 3rd August and if you have this on pre-order you're in for a treat - we have murder, deception, dysfunctional family dynamics and the twists we all know, love and expect from Feeney.

Twenty years ago a baby was stolen from a pram on Mother's Day and almost two decades later a woman is murderd in a care home. Somehow, these two events are linked and we as the readers sort the seemingly disparate pieces of the jigsaw and then slowly but surely, these are joined together but I must admit, I am slow to join the pieces but that makes it even more exciting when I do get to that final denouement.

Chapters were short in that classic 'just one more chapter' sort of way; moving between the settings of an art gallery, a houseboat, a prison, a care-home and a beautiful pink house. Characters are all linked and even though the first few pages were quite confusing in ascertaining who's who, but I absolutely loved it when I'd sussed out the characters and could move between each of their tales and figuring out who's good, who's bad and who's an amalgamation of the two.

A brilliant suspenseful domestic drama I have thoroughly enjoyed as well as my discussions with fellow arc reader @the_amateur_book_reviewer. She was a lot quicker than me on picking up the little clues hidden by Feeney!




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Everybody has a mother, but not everybody has a mother’s love.

The story is set two decades after a baby is snatched from a stroller, and later a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow interconnected, and the plot unfolds in this backdrop as the characters navigate their secrets, lies, and the quest for truth. The care home plays a vital role in the events and revelations that occur throughout the novel.

Despite being deceived into residing in a nursing home, eighty-year-old Edith is determined to plan her escape. Patience, who works at the care home, finds solace in cleaning up and bonding with Edith, as they share a kindred spirit. However, Patience conceals the truth from Edith on various fronts. Clio, Edith's own daughter, chooses not to communicate with her. Furthermore, someone with ill intentions is poised to knock on Clio's door.

The novel revolves around the long-held secrets and lies of its characters. They have been concealing the truth about their past, and as the narrative unfolds, additional secrets are unearthed. It also delves into the complex dynamics between mothers and daughters, examining the reasons behind the strained relationship between Clio and her mother.

Throughout the story, the characters continuously question whom they can trust, wrestling with their identities and the consequences of their past. The theme of redemption and the possibility of atoning for past mistakes are also explored. The characters are compelled to confront their pasts and seek reconciliation for their actions.

The care home setting in "Good Bad Girl" adds to the overall sense of suspense, mystery, and psychological depth within the novel. It intensifies the feeling of confinement, heightens the intrigue, and serves as a symbolic representation of the internal struggles faced by the characters.

"Good Bad Girl" by Alice Feeney is a captivating novel that delves into the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. The author's trademark twists kept me hooked, and I found the plot to be immersive and personal.