Book Club February 2013: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Our book club pick for February 2013 is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a stylish crime novel by a hugely accomplished writer. Gone Girl has become a runaway success in the United States, selling 700,000 copies, reaching number one and staying in the bestseller charts for weeks. Reese Witherspoon's production company has bought the rights and is making a film, in which Reese will star as Amy. Gillian answered your questions here.

"Who are you?"
"What have we done to each other?"

These are the questions Nick Dunne has to ask himself when, on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, his wife Amy suddenly disappears. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him and kept secrets from him. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches; Nick says they weren't made by him. Then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone...So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife Amy?

To reveal any more would be to give too much away. Suffice to say the novel is smartly plotted, cleverly written, disturbing, and shocking (in a good way).

"Flynn, an extraordinarily good writer, plays her readers with the finesse and delicacy of an expert angler. She wields her unreliable narrators to stunning effect, baffling, disturbing and delighting in turn, practically guaranteeing an immediate reread once her terrifying, wonderful conclusion is reached...an early contender for thriller of the year, and an absolute must-read." Alison Flood, Observer.

"Flynn keeps the accelerator firmly to the floor, ratchetting up the tension with wildly unexpected plot twists, contradictory stories and the tantalising feeling that nothing is as it seems. Deviously good." Marie Claire

"You think you're reading a good, conventional thriller and then it grows into a fascinating portrait of one averagely mismatched relationship...Nothing is as it seems - Flynn is a fabulous plotter, and a very sharp observer of modern life in the aftermath of the credit crunch." Kate Saunders, The Times.

Gillian Flynn's first novel, Sharp Objects, was the winner of two Crime Writers' Association Daggers; Gone Girl is her second book. Gillian lives in Chicago with her husband.

Sorry, the 200 free copies have now gone.

If you missed out on the free books, you can get a copy from Amazon.