One of the Good Guys

A Novel

By: Araminta Hall

Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick, Olivia Vinall, Helen Keeley

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Two young women vanish in a seaside town. At the cliff's edge, nobody is who they seem.

Desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole upends his life. He leaves London behind for a remote stretch of coast, relishing the respite from the noise, drama, and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship and mental health. Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She’s living a short walk from Cole’s seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. Though Cole still can’t figure out what went wrong with his marriage, and Leonora is having trouble acclimating to the hostile landscape, the pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home.

Then, two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and the resulting media firestorm when the world learns of what happened. And as the tension escalates alongside the search for the missing women, they quickly realize that they don’t know each other that well after all.

From the critically acclaimed author of Our Kind of Cruelty and Imperfect Women, comes an urgent psychological thriller about gender, power, and how both are captured in our contemporary media environment. Unexpected and twisty from its first word to its last, One of the Good Guys asks: If most men claim to be good, why are most women still afraid to walk home alone at night?

©2024 Araminta Hall (P)2024 Gillian Flynn Books

thought-provoking theme

“One of the Good Guys” by Araminta Hall is a feminist novel that asks, “If most men say they are one of the good guys, why are women afraid to walk home alone when it’s dark? Why are women afraid to go to a bar/restaurant/pub alone? Why must they worry about their drinks getting spiked?”

Hall begins the story with Cole narrating about what a good guy he is. He’s mystified when his marriage fails, after all, he did all the cleaning, cooking, household repairs. His wife was the money maker. Cole’s narration, however, is just creepy enough that the reader wonders if he is a reliable narrator. There are some strange clues in his narration that makes the reader uneasy.

Cole moved to a seaside cottage to regroup. He meets Leonora who says she moved for similar reasons. She has a more dramatic cottage on a bluff. Leonora is an artist, and she is preparing for her next exhibit. While Cole and Leonora are getting to know each other, two twenty-something feminist activists are hiking along the coast, livestreaming their hike to raise awareness of domestic violence.

Cole happens to interact with the two young females. In his narration, he’s trying to help them, provide them with safety tips. But the women feel he’s hostile and they feel threatened. Cole is perplexed, as he was just trying to help.

Hall then allows Mel, Cole’s ex-wife to narrate. She takes the reader back into time, detailing their short marriage, and providing another view. There were infertility issues, and Mel had to endure all that ugly business of IVF. Their marriage ended with three embryos, which Mel wants destroyed, and Cole wants badly. Cole tells us that he has always wanted children, and he intends to care for them and not work. He would be the perfect father.

The two young women go missing, and Cole become implicated because he was one of the last people to see them alive. Now that the women are missing, the media is interested in their hike and their fates.

Hall begins to tie the story together, using social media inserts. I chose to listen to the audio, and I am glad I did. The publisher added keyboard sounds, computer sounds as people chimed in on social media. The other bonus is the multiple narrators. Elliot Fitzpatrick was amazing expressing all the male voices. Olivia Vinall and Helen Keely use their voices dramatically, adding to the listening pleasure. For those who love audios and want multiple narrators, this is one for you.

The ending…wow. There’s lots to discuss. Hall makes you question why women are so fearful. She makes men take another look at their behaviors. But more importantly, she does a great job of showing how our culture is complicit with men getting away with bad behaviors.

This is one with some hang time! This is a provocative 8 hour listen.-