A Good Family, written by local author Matt Goldman, is paced so perfectly that it is very hard to put down.
Set in the Country Club neighborhood of Edina, the novel is rich with details of the community: beautiful lawns, couples’ book clubs, Christmas Eve luminaria and attractive people who never reveal their personal struggles.
Katie Kuhlmann fell in love with her husband, Jack, at the University of Minnesota. She becomes a food scientist at General Mills, while Jack creates a new sulfur-sodium battery for automobiles. When Jack’s company takes off, he uses his windfall to renovate their home on Browndale Avenue. It becomes the perfect house for Jack but not so much for Katie.
As Jack grows coolly distant from his family, Katie focuses on their children and her work, with the hope that things will improve with Jack. And she tells no one her worries. There are no secrets in their neighborhood. All lips are loose.
An unexpected friend ends up at their door in late fall. Jack’s college buddy, Adam “Bagman” Ross, rings the doorbell, walking through the doorway and back into their lives. Like the man who came for dinner, Bagman stays in their mother-in-law’s apartment for months, doing who knows what.
Readers who enjoy Goldman’s mysteries and those who liked Carolina Moonset, will be grateful for this page turner. Read more about Goldman on page 26.
Maureen Millea Smith is a retired librarian and Minnesota Book Award winning novelist.
