In her trademark Lisa Jewell style, the truth is hidden in a web of lies and contradicting character perspectives. Breaking down all the evidence, I tried to piece together a version of events that most closely resembles the truth. 

Josie & Walter:

       Josie’s mother, Pat, met Walter when he came to work on the estate as an electrician. Although he was married at the time, the two began to have an affair. At first, Josie treated Walter the same as she’d treated all her mother’s other boyfriends, trying her best to scare him away, but over time her feelings toward him changed. According to her best friend from school and her own mother, Josie “seduced” Walter. She “stole” her mother’s married boyfriend when he was in his 30’s and she was only 15. The two got married when Josie was 18 and have been together ever since, despite their marriage growing increasingly contentious as Walter lost his looks to old age.

Brooke Ripley’s Murder: 

       According to Josie during her podcast sessions with Alix, a young Brooke Ripley was having an affair with Walter. Erin heard them sleeping together one afternoon and told Roxy about the affair, which led to a fistfight at school and Roxy running away. At first she claims she didn’t even know Brooke had gone missing too. 

       According to Roxy, Brooke Ripley was her high school sweetheart and they were deeply in love. Josie was jealous of Brooke and hated her because the rest of the Fair family adored her. Roxy explains away the fistfight at school, saying she was so hot-tempered that when someone told her Brooke used a “derogatory word about her”, she punched her in the face without fact-checking first. Despite the fistfight, Roxy desperately wanted Brooke to run away with her, but she refused. Roxy left before prom night without her. Oddly paired with her protestations of innocence, Roxy brings up the key for the garage, Walter was secretly renting behind their flat that could be accessed through the window in the bathroom. 

       According to Erin, the night Brooke was murdered her sister wasn’t home. She heard voices in the hallway; her mother and Brooke arguing, receding footsteps, a crack, and a choking noise. Erin believes Josie murdered Brooke out of jealousy and hid her body in the trunk of Walter’s old car on her own. 

     Brooke Ripley was not having an affair with Walter and she was not Roxy’s girlfriend. According to Alix’s neighbor, Brooke had a reputation as a girl who gets around. Roxy made up a romantic relationship with her to obfuscate. My theory is: Roxy was home the night Brooke stopped by after prom. She accidentally killed Brooke when she lost her temper for an unknown reason. Roxy had a history of injuring others during her violent tantrums. She broke another student’s finger and her own sister’s arm in elementary school. Days before she punched Brooke so hard in the face, it split her lip. Josie really did come home to find “Roxy kneeling over the white-clad body of Brooke Ripley with tears coursing down her cheeks.” But it was Josie, not Walter, who knew how to “get rid” of the body and clean up the scene of the crime. Roxy ran away so she couldn’t be questioned during the investigation into Brooke’s disappearance. 

After Dinner:

 Josie has 5 different versions of events the night they went to Alix’s dinner. 

1. When Josie first arrives at 3 a.m., she hysterically says Walter beat her and hit Erin. But she immediately contradicts herself when she tells Alix “I saw red and went for him.” 

            Josie accidentally admits she attacked Walter first. When his body was found, he was badly beaten and tied to a chair. 

            Josie attacked him which led to his heart attack. 

2. Josie tells Nathan that Walter was so pissed about his absence at dinner that he took it out on Josie. 

            Walter didn’t give a fuck that Nathan didn’t show up to the dinner. 

3. When they got home from dinner, Josie confronted Walter about his affair with the underage Brooke Ripley. He went into a rage and beat her. She managed to get away, bursting into Erin’s room so they could escape their abusive situation together. Walter followed and attacked her with the remote. Eventually, they made it outside and Erin walked over to an unknown friend’s house alone while Josie came back to Alix’s. In this version, she no longer claims Walter hit Erin too, and part of the altercation took place in Erin’s room. 

            During Erin’s Netflix interview she insists she heard Josie and Walter screaming at each other when they got home from

            dinner. When Erin came downstairs, he was clutching his chest and bleeding from the side of his head. She started 

            beating Josie with the remote to protect Walter from further harm. Erin can’t piece together what happened next until

            she woke up in the cupboard tied to a chair and forced to drink dirty mop water to survive. 

4. Josie adjusts the timeline of her confession to fill in the gaps. She “clarifies” she confronted Walter about his affair in the middle of the night after they’d already gone to bed. 

            It takes roughly 15 minutes to walk from Josie’s apartment to Alix’s house. If she did get into a fight with Walter when

            they got home from dinner, there is A LOT of missing time before she turns back up at 3 a.m. She’s still wearing the same 

            dress covered in blood, not pajamas. All evidence points to Josie killing Walter around 10:30, and using the missing time 

            to clean up afterwards.

5. At the end of the book, Josie “comes clean.” She wanted to tell Alix the truth about Brooke’s murder to ease her guilty conscience. When she told Walter her plans, he had such a strong emotional reaction it caused a heart attack. Erin arrived, having heard their screaming match and beats Josie with the remote to defend Walter. They physically fight but Josie can’t quite remember clearly what happened after that (presumably because of her head injury). 

            Way before the night of Alix’s dinner, Josie told Walter she was “going to tell Alix about the girls”.  When they got home

            from dinner, Josie didn’t confront Walter about his affair with Brooke because it didn’t happen. She didn’t confront him 

            about Brooke’s murder because he didn’t already know about it. In her confession, Josie left out that she hit Walter, trying

            to make it sound like he simply keeled over from a heart attack as a result of all the yelling. She murdered Walter because 

            she was obsessed with Alix. She tied up Erin and left her for dead, because she hated her own daughter. She killed Nathan

            intentionally because she wanted Alix to experience her newfound freedom. 

1. What are your thoughts on Walter and Josie’s relationship? 

Personally, I think that it’s up the the adult in the situation (Walter) to reject the advances of a teenage Josie. As the adult in the situation, Walter should have known better. No, Josie should not have been trying to “seduce” grown men at 15, but as a teenager whose brain isn’t fully developed, it’s not her responsibility to prevent an adult from illegally/immorally.

2.  Was Nathan cheating on Alix? 

There is a lot of evidence that Nathan was cheating. I’m supposed to believe that Nathan was just innocently getting blacked out drunk and sleeping in hotel room alone? Really? I’ve known men that were madly in love with their girlfriends/wives and they would cry for them and beg for them when they were trashed. Within hours they would be sleeping with another random girl they met at the bar. 

3. What was the real motive behind the fistfight between Roxy and Brooke? 

I just don’t believe that she punched Brooke in the face because she was sleeping with Walter or because she said a “derogatory” word. 

4. What would Josie’s motive have been for killing Walter? 

Leon noticed Josie eavesdropping on Walter and Alix, so she heard his warnings. Josie is a possessive person. From all accounts and her own behavior, Josie cannot handle when the person she is obsessed with doesn’t adore her in return. Walter’s attempt to make her look bad to Alix was the motive for the murder. Not his affair with Brooke. Not that he was forcing her to remain silent about the murder. But because she was a jealous psychopath. 

5. Did Josie intentionally kill Nathan? 

Josie hated Nathan. During the recording session where she discusses fantasizing about what her life will be like after Walter’s death, she hints that “death is a clean break” by referencing a previous podcast Alix had released. She swears she was only going to kidnap Nathan to “teach him a lesson” and then let him go home or Alix. But, Josie rented the cabin two weeks before she held him hostage, which was around the time she made that hint to Alix. Nathan’s murder was totally premeditated.