Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025--San Antonio

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney has been named by NPR as a top book of 2025.  It's a mystery novel that takes place in England and Scotland.  The central characters are a man and a woman who are married.  They love each other, but there are problems.  The man is a bit set in his ways, and the woman is upset that he won't compromise on things she would like to happen.  The man is an author who has just begun to have some success with his books, and the woman is a reporter who has been their main provider but is getting some threatening messages related to her stories.  He seems to think that all is well with their marriage.  But she disappears.  The book begins a year after her disappearance.  We learn all of the above from his memories and worries about what has happened to her and from what she told a psychologist in sessions before her disappearance.  As the story progresses, it is revealed that there is much more to the story than either of them were admitting.  Much of what happens in the book occurs after he, who has been unable to write a contracted second novel since his wife's disappearance, is provided a last-ditch opportunity by his editor who also is the godmother to his wife--a chance to stay in a cottage the editor owns on a small remote Scottish island that has only 25 residents, no cell phone service, and an infrequent ferry service.  You'll have to read the book to learn what happens after he arrives on the island and what mysteries are revealed.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.