Good Guys - by Mindy Misener (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In a small New England town in 2008, two estranged sisters become embroiled in a war crime involving a local hero ...

Georgie and Jo are sisters, but they aren't close. The situation seems worse once Jo goes off to college, making it obvious she's happy about leaving Curtisville and Georgie and their disabled father behind.

Then, Gary Clemmons dies in the Iraq War. Gary--the son of their pastor, the hero of their hometown, and the brother of Georgie's secret girlfriend--was famous for being a good guy.

But Georgie stumbles on a dark secret about Gary, and once Jo finds out, things begin to spiral out of control. The fallout will change both sister's lives forever.

In the end, Good Guys uncovers the underbelly of a small town--the darkness of patriotism and masculinity, the harm caused by blind religious fervor, and the ways these dynamics can destroy families.

Review Quotes

"Mindy Misener's Good Guys is a thrilling debut, a brilliantly paced and plotted novel built around a shattering secret and the transformations it provokes within a family and a community. Misener explores the oceanic silences that surround the archipelago of the stories people tell and retell about the past, and the power of our stories to both conceal and reveal truth. Georgie and Jo had my heart, and Misener's beautiful novel charts the tidal forces that shape their lives, and our own." -- Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!

"An intimately observed portrait of small-town sisters in the twin shadows of the opioid epidemic and America's foreign wars. Running throughout, a profoundly affecting current of hope in the form of the dogged love of siblings. Misener's debut is exquisitely crafted, emotionally acute and brimming with heart." -- Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl

About the Author

Mindy Misener grew up in Maine. She is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. After teaching college writing for ten years, she made a career change and enrolled in Yale Divinity School. She is on track to be ordained in the UCC. Her prose has appeared in Image, The Missouri Review, CrossCurrents, The Appalachian Review, The Pinch, The Common, and other outlets.