Beautiful Ugly
For author Grady Green, a day of incredible triumph instantly becomes his ultimate nightmare. While sharing fantastic news with his wife, Abby, over the phone, he hears her suddenly brake and step out of her car—followed by dead silence. He discovers her abandoned vehicle near a cliff's edge: headlights blazing, door ajar, and phone left behind. But Abby is gone without a trace.
One year later, a grieving, severely blocked Grady retreats to a remote Scottish island, desperate for a fresh start. Instead, his world is upended again when he spots something utterly impossible: a woman who is the exact double of his vanished wife.
- Abby (Aubrey) - Grady’s wife, investigative journalist
- Grady - Abby’s husband, author
- Columbo - Grady’s dog
- Charles Whittaker - Famous author, deceased
- Kitty - Grady’s literary agent, Abby’s godmother
- Sandy - Sheriff on Amberly
- Isla - Sandy’s daughter, deceased
- Midge - Sandy’s sister
- Morag - Sandy and Midge’s mother
- Melody (the woman in black) - Reverend at Saint Lucy’s Church
- Kitty sends Grady to her cottage on Amberly in the Scottish Highlands, formerly owned by Charles Whittaker, so he can try to write his next book.
- Grady starts thinking he sees Abby on the island.
- Grady finds the manuscript for book ten that Charles was writing when he died, which no one had been able to find.
- One week before she disappeared: Abby
- Abby spoke to ‘the woman in black’ about wanting to leave her husband.
- When Abby was nine her piano teacher molested her.
- After her mother found out she sent Abby away.
- Present: Grady
- Grady turns Charles Whittaker’s manuscript into his own and sends it to Kitty.
- Grady finds Sandy by Darkside cave, and she tells him that one day all of the children on Amberly snuck there and were swept away during high tide.
- Sandy tells Grady she read book ten before Charles died.
- Grady leaves Sandy in the cave, hoping she will drown so she cannot tell anyone he stole Charles’s manuscript.
- Grady finds the island residents gathered in the church and Abby is there but she goes by Aubrey now.
- Abby lived on Amberly as a child and was there the day the children of the mist died.
- Abby wanted to run away because the substitute teacher had abused her; Isla went with her, and the rest of the children followed them to Darkside cave.
- All the children but Abby died, and she blames herself.
- After that, the island residents decided to get rid of the men. As the men died, they were replaced with women. Almost all the women on the island were running from someone; the island is their refuge.
- The night Abby disappeared, Grady was the one lying in the middle of the road in a woman’s coat, and when she went to help, he grabbed her and threw her off a cliff.
- The Abby who was talking to the woman in black was really Kitty - she changed her name from Abby to Kitty when she left her husband Charles Whittaker.
- The woman in black is Melody.
- Sandy killed the substitute teacher after finding out what happened to Isla.
- Grady tells Kitty he tried to kill Abby because he found a positive pregnancy test and thought she was going to leave him; he had a secret vasectomy, so he believed Abby was having an affair.
- Grady thought that if Abby left him, Kitty would stop representing him and he’d have nothing.
- Kitty says Abby used IVF and a donor to get pregnant, she wasn’t cheating.
- Charles used to give a lot of money from his book sales to the island, which kept it running without needing to allow tourists.
- Kitty sent Grady to Amberly, hoping he could become the new Charles.
- Grady has two choices; he will be allowed to stay on Amberly if he keeps writing bestsellers and the money goes to the island, or the women will kill him and bury him behind Saint Lucy’s.
- One year later - Beautiful Ugly is at the top of the bestseller list.
- Grady wakes up in a coffin and hears the church bells.
Alice Feeney’s Beautiful Ugly is one of those books that pulls you in right from the start. I was immediately invested in finding out what happened to Abby. The writing itself is absolutely beautiful, creating a really great atmosphere right out of the gate.
However, the pacing is very, very slow. Even with an interesting twist woven in, the story drags significantly as it unfolds. Because I was so hooked on Abby's mystery early on, I pushed through the sluggish chapters, fully expecting a massive conclusion to make the long journey worth it.
While the prose is great and the initial hook is strong, the incredibly slow pace and underwhelming resolution leave a lot to be desired. This book is great for anyone who wants a well written story with a lot of mystery but if you are looking for thrills this book isn't for you.
- Alcohol abuse
- Sexual assault of a minor
- Rape
- Death of children
- Attempted murder
- Suicide
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 9781250337801
Publication Date: January 14, 2025
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
