Gone Girl: Crimes of Amy Dunne

Hello and Welcome back folks to part 2 of our criminal investigation of the tale woven by Gillian Flynn in her mesmerizing book Gone Girl. Let us now take a closer look at the primary antagonist of the story- Amy Elliot-Dunne.

It is rather surprising that I referred to her as the antagonist when the entire story revolves around the disappearance of her character. This is where the creativity of Flynn comes into play. She brought her own twist to the factual data, forming a miraculously twisted tale. In the book, Amy Dunne attempts to fake her death and frame her husband for the same because he had an affair. She is a calculative, manipulative and psychopathic individual who harnesses lawlessness to punish her husband.

On discovering that her husband has been unfaithful to her, she begins hatching the most devious and elaborate plan. She lays down a trail of false evidences to get him arrested. This begins with befriending a pregnant neighbor to fake a pregnancy by stealing her urine, drawing out her own blood to create a murder scene in the kitchen, creating credit card debts in Nick’s name so that he increases her life insurance, getting a getaway car and creating fake diary entries to throw the cops off her scent.

She planned an elaborate scavenger hunt for their anniversary that reveals details enforcing Nick's arrest. Though the contents of the diary were false, not all of the details were unreliable. Amy would go to any extent to get her husband behind bars. She also approached Desi Collings, a former boyfriend she describes as a stalker to help keep her real identity under wraps. She lies to him to take cover in his safety.   

But she ends up faking to be a rape victim abused by Collings and murders him to get back to Nick after a scandalous television appearance he made. She fakes rape injuries and finally gets herself back to her home and her husband, without drawing any suspicion towards herself. Perfect Execution.

Amy Dunne takes law in her hands and commits several crimes including identity theft when she went undercover. The  aspect of Amy's story that does not sit well with me is the fact that the justice system investigating her case never traced any step back to her, facilitating the function of a genius crime.

These are the aspects of true crime that has been incorporated into her writing by Flynn, while at the same time she creatively manipulated the story to give it flavour. Drop down your thoughts in the comment section below and let me know  what you think. Next, we are going to be looking at things from the perspective of Nick Dunne.

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Until next time, stay Safe, Healthy and Awesome.

CIAO.