Johnnie will do anything to get his hands on gambling money. He’s a liar. He’s a thief. He played a hand in the death of two men for his own financial gain. Despite his history of immoral actions, I don’t believe Johnnie kills Lina in the end. Throughout the book Lina’s intuition swears she is about to be murdered and she is always overreacting. 

True, Johnnie pressured her father into performing the party trick that led to his stroke, but they didn’t really get along. It’s way easier to kill someone who doesn’t like you than it is to kill the love of your life. Yeah, Johnnie made a drinking bet with Beaky which resulted in his death from alcohol poisoning, but he’d always seen Beaky as undeserving of his wealth. It’s easier to rid the world of another useless trust-fund baby than your own wife. Sure, Johnnie knows the household ingredient that’s undetectable as a murder method too. I still don’t think he kills Lina. He doesn’t need to kill her to have access to her money. He knows when her mother dies she will get a second inheritance. As such a patient and opportunistic killer, Johnnie would wait until he absolutely needed the insurance payout and was sure he’d get away with it. I just don’t believe he was desperate enough to take the risk.

1. At what point is Lina being willfully blind to Johnnie’s true nature, rather than being deceived by him? 

2. Why does Johnnie bring Lina home from her sisters’ house? Is it because he loves her and really wants her back? 

3. How culpable is Lina in Beaky’s death?  

4. After she discovers Johnnie essentially murdered her father, Lina takes a train to Ronald. Once he explains to her he’s moved on, she just goes back home. Which is worse, the humiliation Lina would have faced leaving for a second time or staying with her husband? 

5.  Does Johnnie actually kill Lina in the end?