I had been keeping a notepad going of book endings – I go through books rather quickly and sometimes get them mixed up. I started writing down endings so that I could jog my memory. I figure this would be a good place to store these.
The Plot
Jacob steals the plot of a book from one of his students that ends up dead. The book makes him famous. He starts getting emails calling him a theif. It turns out the emails are from his wife, who is actually the mom in the book, the mom killed her daughter and then took her daughter’s place
Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand
Kelly dies. George buys the Inn. Ava gets engaged to her boyfriend. Jen becomes the star of a show that fixes up houses in a bad neighborhood
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
Jess matches with River, the company creator for the DNA match – the highest they’ve ever seen in the company. She finds out that it was faked data from some of the execs. They end up firing those execs, she gets together with River, the DNA gets run… and they are, in fact, a diamond match
UNSUB by Meg Gardiner
Caitlin becomes a homicide detective in order to hunt down the Prophet – a serial killer that her father, a retired cop – had been hunting his whole career. Her dad had gone crazy, but it turns out it was mercury poisoning. Caitlin discovers that the Prophet is replicating the nine rings of hell based on a book. The last ring bring her and her dad to try to rescue her boyfriend Sean. Sean was ambushed and brought down in a tunnel. There were explosives wired to bring down the subway. Caitlin is able to kill the Prophet, but her dad dies in the process. Sean ends up living. It ends with Caitlin realizing there was someone else down there and she goes out to Quantico to be a behavior analyst with the FBI – she gets a call from the new Prophet, and the voice she recognizes to be the voice of a guy that had walked past her meeting with a victim that had gotten away and said “f’ing narc”
The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
Ivy buys a farmhouse in a small town, sight unseen. It needs a lot of work. Her realtor, Ezra, ends up being very helpful. They find a letter about from a little girl in a Santa suit. Ivy meets a friend name Pheobe who is engaged to a solidier overseas but she has sent him a picture that isn’t her. Turns out, Cody, her fiance did the same. They fall in love anyways. Ezra’s mother was Carlette, the little girl whose letter Ivy found. Carlette’s grandfather was Lawrence, the old man that Ivy befriended.
The Last Thing He Told Me
Hannah marries Owen who has a teenage daughter Bailey. One day, his company is raided for fraud and he disappears, leaving a note for Hannah that says “Protect Her” (meaning Bailey). It sends the on a chase to figure out who he is – they end up in Austin, TX. Owen was involved with his father in law’s business and his wife ended up getting hit by a car and killed as a threat (even though it was actually related to her job working with a Supreme Court judge). He thought it was a message to his father in law, so Owen turned him in and then disappeared with his toddler daughter. Hannah makes a deal with the father in law to keep her and Bailey safe in their current lives without having to join witness protection in exchange for allowing him to have a relationship with his granddaughter. He can’t protect Owen (nor does he want to). The book ends many years down the road at an art showing, Owen walks in to see Hannah and then disappears.
The Guncle
Patrick ends up moving to Connecticut and doing a play so he can be closer to kids and the family and will start up doing a family sitcom based on his life as a gay uncle the next year. The kids changed him and made him realize how sad and lonely and how he had not been living since Joe died
Razorblade Tears
The dads end up killing all of the people involved. Derek was going to publish an article about his stepdad – a wealthy judge/senator – who was having an affair with a transgender woman. His stepdad had them killed. The grand daughter gets kidnapped and Buddy gets killed while getting her back
The Hating Game
Josh’s brother marries his ex girlfriend. Josh and Lucy end up falling in love at the end (surprise). Josh ends up resigning the day before his brother’s wedding and the week before interviews with the hopes that Lucy will realize she’s in love with him at the wedding, he accepts a financial job at the firms competitor. Lucy yells at his dad to make him realize Josh is a good guy. Borderline creepy/stalker relationship – she randomly walks by his house one night? Creepy amount of crossing each other’s lines of privacy
A Good Girls Guide to Murder
Pippa’s best friends dad Mr. Ward ended up being the one that was sending her half of the letters. He had had an affair with the girl that went missing and was worried she was going to tell. He pushed her, she hit her head, then disappeared. He ended up thinking he found her walking around, kidnapped her and kept her in his old house. Becca, the sister, was the one that actually killed her sister. She was mad because her sister was selling drugs and the drugs ended up getting her raped at a party and her sister didn’t seem to care when she was confronted. Becca pushed her, she hit her head and vomited and her sister watched her die as she choked on her own vomit. Pippa’s dog dies… Becca kills it. So unnecessary!
Hide (Book #2) – Lisa Gardner
Annabelle’s uncle was the one that was chasing her. He was the one that broke into their house. Her dad shot him when he went back after he killed her best friend, and it gave him a brain injury that put him into the mental health hospital. He got nurtured back to health and then rejoined society. He became a UPS driver and went be Ben (Benji). The priest was a violent patient as well and went by a new name (Charlie). He ended up getting killed in an altercation at Annabelle’s house when Benji (uncle Tommy) found them. He stabbed him. Annabelle got the door open and Uncle Tommy fell to his death. The dog got stabbed but survived (so sad). Annabelle and detective Dodge end up getting married. Annabelle’s dad was convinced his brother was the one that took Gagnon (from book #1)
Winter Storms by Elin Hildebrand
Kelly’s prostate cancer metastasizes to his brain. Ava’s ex- Scott gets his fling pregnant and breaks it off cold turkey with Ava. Nathaniel proposes and Ava says yes, but the changes her mind when he wants to move. She then interviews for jobs in New York. Margaret hears that the soldiers have been found, Bart ends up being alive.
“Hi, I’m your birthday twin”
Josie
Walter – Josie’s husband, they married when she was still a teenager and he was in his 40s
Alix Summer – podcaster, Josie’s birthday twin
Nathan – Alix’s husband, has been staying out late or not coming home
Roxy – Josie’s older daughter
Ending – Nathan’s body is found in the lake, Josie had set him up to have someone she knew that was an actress try to seduce him. Josie picks him up from the hotel pretending to be Alix
Walter dies from a heart attack during an argument and Josie doesn’t help him. She then locks Erin in a closet.
Roxie goes into the police and tells them Walter never hurt them. She said she had been in love with Brooke.
The police find the body of Brooke on Josie’s property.
Josie writes to Alix and tells her that killing Nathan was an accident and that Roxy had killed Brooke. She said she was trying to cover up for her daughter.
Josie is still on the run.
Olivia – missing person that just vanished
Julia – lead detective
Lewis – father of missing girl
Emma – mother of suspect for missing girl
Lewis worked in the passport department and had stolen Olivia’s to create an identity. He wanted her to go missing so he could frame his daughter, Sadie’s, ex boyfriend for her murder.
Julia is willing to help set up the ex boyfriend because Lewis blackmailed her about knowing that her daughter had stabbed someone during a mugging gone wrong. He had ended up living but died later of sepsis. Lewis and the brother of the deceased have a vendetta against Julia so help to set this up.
Sadie had ended up missing on purpose and her ex boyfriend helped her disappear. She had stolen a couple identities from the passport agency to help a family about to be deported but then a gang found out what she was doing so she was blackmailed into providing identities to them.
It turns out that Jonathan, Julia’s partner, was a dirty cop and had been forcing Sadie to get the passports. He ends up trying to kill Julia but Julia’s informant shoots Jonathan.
Julia takes the blame for her daughter’s incident… but Lewis and Price, her informant, threaten the person who is bringing charges against her and they drop the case
Izzy’s kid sister, Rae, wasn’t actually missing, she had stolen Izzy’s credit card and was staying at a hotel. She needed to do something drastic to try to keep Izzy from moving out and quitting the family PI business.
Izzy finds out that David, her older brother, and Petra, her best friend are dating and have moved in together.
Izzy discovers that her uncle has died in a hotel room at the end, she tells her kid sister that he is having sex as a diversion and says she can go swimming while Izzy starts to go through the things that need to be done.
The murder victim’s father killed him. He was the man at the beginning of the book that was the only customer at Vera’s coffee shop. He gave him some tea that was made with duck fur? The murdered was severely allergic to ducks.
He realized that his son was not a good person. He had been pretending that his wife was alive the whole time when she wasn’t.
From Bookrags Plot Summary:
The following version of this novel was used in the creation of this study guide: Sutanto, Jesse Q. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Berkley. 2023. Paperback.
Vera Wong, a Chinese immigrant and owner of Vera Wang’s World Famous Teahouse, is struggling to stay afloat as she only has a single consistent customer, a grieving husband named Alex. So, when Vera finds a body in her establishment, she decides that it must be murder. Not trusting the police to take it seriously, she steals a flash drive from the victim’s body and checks his driver’s license for his name: Marshall Chen.
Within a few days, Vera settles on four suspects that all returned to her teahouse after Marshall’s death. These four are: Riki, an immigrant who believes Marshall deserved to die, but is terrified that he might have been the cause. Oliver, Marshall’s twin brother who suffered from years of abuse and neglect due to Marshall’s lies. Sana, an artist struggling to overcome her creative block, and Julia, Marshall’s wife whom he abandoned at the very beginning of the novel. All four are suspicious of each other, but slowly open up to both each other and Vera.
As the investigation stalls, Vera’s teahouse is broken into, prompting Julia to invite Vera into her home while the others revamp it. During this time, each character’s connection to Marshall and their innocence is revealed.
First is Sana, whom Vera confronts after finding a file of Sana’s artwork on Marshall’s computer. Sana reveals that she was a student at CalArts and desperate to prove herself to her famous mother. On the verge of graduation and feeling that she failed, Sana trusted Marshall when he offered to sell her work, inadvertently singing away her digital rights, only for him to ghost her. She tracked him down demanding payment, slapping him once he refused and called her art worthless, but left without killing him.
Second is Riki, whom Vera also confronts after finding a folder with his name on it and a file named a scalper bot. He explains that he came to America hoping to earn money to send his gifted brother, Adi, to a special school. However, with low paying jobs and no help, he became desperate and agreed to make Marshall a scalper bot in exchange for $25,000. However, when Marshall refused to pay, Riki tracked him down and punched him in the face, but was horrified at his actions shortly after. Once it is confirmed that Marshall was killed by his bird dander allergy, Riki is cleared, but struggles with guilt after learning that Sana was scammed by his bot.
At the same time, Julia discovers that she will inherit $700,000 from Marshall, drawing Officer Gray’s attention. This leads to Julia letting Officer Gray take Oliver’s manuscript in which he vented his anger towards Marshall and love for Julia using other names and characters. This lead to Officer Gray confronting him, but Oliver shuts the interview down by asking for a lawyer.
When Vera hosts a dinner party hoping to draw out the killer, it is revealed that none of the suspects are actually responsible. Julia, who was unaware of the inheritance, never left the home, while Oliver reveals that he planted drugs hoping to get Marshall in trouble, but chickened out before calling the police. When Vera tells the others that she staged the break in, but still lost Marshall’s laptop and flash drive, Julia kicks her out.
All four come to regret this decision and find Vera sick in her apartment. After some time in the hospital, Vera figures out the truth and confronts the real killer: Alex, Marshall and Oliver’s father. He tearfully admits that he was horrified to learn how Marshall had lied to him for decades and planned to abandon his family and, in Alex’s despair, gave Marshall a tea made from one of his allergens, killing him. He apologizes to Oliver for years of emotional abuse and is arrested. As Vera’s son helps with Alex’s defense, she and her former suspects reopen the new and improved teahouse.
Good summary at: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-visit-from-the-goon-squad/summary
Stories in story? — not in chronological order so slightly confusing at times. To sum up:
- Sasha meets with her therapist, Coz. She is addicted to stealing. She was on a date with Alex and they go back to her place, she steals a piece of paper from him that says ‘I believe in you’
- Bennie is a record executive. His son Christopher and him go with Bennie’s secretary, Sasha, to a band’s house. The band is not doing well.
- Rhea is a musician. Her friend Jocelyn is sleeping with Lou. Lou is a record executive. He brings them to watch a band that Bennie and Scotty are in. Jocelyn runs away with Lou.
- Lou is on safari with two of his children, Charlie and Rolph, and his girlfriend, Mindy. Albert is the tour guide. Chronos is on the safari as well. He is a popular musician that ends up getting mauled by a tiger and Albert shoots and kills the tiger. Mindy sleeps with Albert. Jumps to the future – Lou and Mindy get married and have two kids then get divorced. Charlie joins a cult. Role commits suicide.
- Jocelyn and Rhea go to Lou’s house when he is dying. Jocelyn is a drug addict. Jocelyn asks Lou about Rolph, which makes Lou so sad.
- Scotty is a janitor and likes fishing. He meets up with his friend, Bennie. Bennie asks Scotty about his ex-wife, Alice. Bennie had a big crush on her.
From LitCharts:
In the first story of part B, titled “A to B,” the focus is on Bennie’s wife Stephanie before they get divorced. The family moves to a wealthy community outside of New York City, called Crandale. They attempt to fit in, but Bennie is racially profiled because he is Hispanic, and Stephanie feels like an outsider because of her tattoos. Stephanie begins playing tennis with a woman named Kathy. One day, Stephanie goes to the city to meet with the guitarist Bosco, for whom she does PR work. Her brother, Jules, who has just been released from prison, volunteers to go with her. Jules mentions that Stephanie and Bennie seem jumpy, which makes Stephanie worry that Bennie is cheating on her again. When they arrive at Bosco’s apartment, Bosco tells Stephanie that he wants to go on a suicide tour. The former guitarist for the Conduits, Bosco has become fat, alcoholic, and is dying of cancer. He wants to go out with a bang and die on stage. Stephanie thinks the idea is ludicrous, but Jules wants to write a book about the suicide tour. Later that night, Bennie comes home and while he showers, Stephanie finds a gold colored bobby pin on the floor. She realizes it belongs to Kathy, whom Bennie is having an affair with. Stephanie wanders downstairs, and goes out to the garden. She is surprised when Noreen, her reclusive neighbor, whispers to her from behind the fence. They share a brief interaction before Stephanie goes back inside.
The next story in the novel, “Selling the General,” features Dolly Peale. Dolly, formerly known as “La Doll,” was a famous PR expert, but she ruined her name after a light display at one of her parties malfunctioned and burned the famous attendees. She begins doing work trying to save the image a military dictator called The General. She hires Kitty Jackson, an actress with a flagging reputation, and they travel to meet the general so Kitty can appear in a photograph with the dictator. Dolly also brings her daughter, Lulu, in hopes of repairing their relationship. When they meet The General, Dolly takes a photograph of Kitty’s interaction with him, but things take a turn for the worse when Kitty begins asking the General about the genocide. The General’s guards carry Kitty away into captivity. Dolly and Lulu leave immediately. Months later, the General’s country has transitioned to democracy. Kitty is released and begins working on a new movie. Dolly and Lulu move out of the city, and Dolly opens a successful sandwich shop.
The following story, titled “Forty-Minute Lunch: Kitty Jackson Opens Up About Love, Fame, and Nixon!” appears in the novel as a magazine article written by Jules Jones, Stephanie’s brother. The article was written prior to his release from prison, and the style of the article, including rants and footnotes, shows Jules coming unhinged. As he talks with Kitty, he begins to conflate Kitty Jackson with his ex-girlfriend, who left him for a memoirist. Sensing his time with Kitty is almost up, Jules convinces her to go on a walk with him in Central Park. Once in the park, Jules pushes her down and tries to rape her. Kitty sprays him with pepper spray and stabs him in the leg with a Swiss Army knife. Later, Jules is convicted of attempted rape, and sent to prison. Kitty sends him a letter apologizing for whatever role she had in his mental breakdown. Her letter creates a media sensation, and Kitty is pegged as the Marilyn Monroe of her generation.
The next story, “Out of Body,” is told through the voice of Rob, and includes Sasha. This story is set before Sasha begins working for Bennie Salazar, while she is still in college at NYU. Rob has recently attempted suicide and his friends, including Sasha, are worried about him. Rob and Sasha met after she asked him to pose as her fake boyfriend. Sasha believes that her father has detectives watching her, and she wants to appear as if she is dating a nice boy. Rob resents the fact that Sasha seems interested in their mutual friend Drew. Sasha, Drew, and Rob go to a Conduits concert. As the band plays, Rob begins to fantasize about Drew, imagining that seeing Drew naked would give him a sense of relief. After the concert, Sasha goes to a party with Bennie Salazar, whom she has just met. Rob and Drew end up going to the East River together. Rob tells Drew that Sasha was a hooker in Naples. He immediately regrets betraying her. Drew decides to swim in the river. Rob follows Drew into the icy water, but gets caught in a current and drowns.
Next comes the story titled “Good-bye, My Love,” told from the perspective of Sasha’s uncle Ted Hollander. Sasha is in Naples, and her stepfather has flown Ted to Naples to look for her, but Ted, who is an art scholar, takes the opportunity to escape his wife and kids and view famous pieces of art. As he walks the city and views different pieces of art, he remembers Sasha as a child, describing her as lovely and bewitching. When he accidently runs into Sasha on the street, he doesn’t know what to say. They schedule dinner, and meet later that evening. As they eat, Sasha asks Ted about his family and his work. Ted is unhappy, and struggles to connect to his wife and family. Ted lies, telling Sasha he is not there for her. Later they go to a club where Sasha convinces Ted to dance with her. Sasha disappears on the dance floor, and Ted realizes she has stolen his wallet. The next day, Ted finds where Sasha lives, and waits outside her door until she gives him his wallet and lets him in. They watch the sun set, and Ted realizes how alone she is in this foreign country. The narrative then flashes forward, revealing that Sasha will have a family in the future. Ted will visit her, and they will reminisce about their time in Naples.
The story “Great Rock and Roll Pauses” is told in the form of a PowerPoint presentation created by Sasha’s daughter, Alison. It is some time in the 2020s, and Sasha has married Drew and started a family. Alison uses the slides to tell the story of the family’s current situation. Alison’s autistic brother Lincoln is interested in pauses in great rock and roll songs. He struggles to connect with his father, who is a doctor and rarely home. One night, Drew returns home from work in a bad mood. Drew becomes angry with Lincoln, and yells at him. Sasha comes to Lincoln’s defense, but Lincoln runs to his room. Alison and her father go for a walk in the desert. Drew admits that he has trouble connecting with his son. Alison suggests Drew help him make graphs of the rock and roll pauses as a way to find connection. As they return to the house, Alison experiences tremendous anxiety, feeling as if she has traveled into the future, and their home may be gone. She is relieved to find it still there, and goes to bed. The chapter ends with slides of graphs created by Lincoln and Drew.
The final chapter, “Pure Language,” brings the novel full circle by returning to Alex, who appeared as Sasha’s date in the novel’s first story. The year is sometime in the 2020s, and Alex has taken a job with Bennie as a social networking marketer, promoting a performance by Scotty Hausman, who has had a comeback as a musician who plays music for toddlers. Alex is reluctant to tell his wife, Rebecca, about his new job due to the stigma around the kind of marketing he’s doing. Alex works with Lulu, Dolly’s daughter who appeared in “Selling the General.” On the day of the concert, the venue is packed, and Alex feels proud. Before the concert Scotty has a panic attack, and refuses to play. Eventually, Lulu convinces Scotty to get on stage. On stage, Scotty plays his songs for children, but then switches to more personal material. Everyone is wowed, and the concert later becomes historic. As Alex and Bennie walk home after the show, they pass the building where Sasha used to live. They ring the doorbell, but nobody answers. Just as they leave, a woman approaches. For a moment they hope it is Sasha, but it is another woman.
Some of my favorite book review sites/spoiler sites:
https://aquintillionwords.com/
https://www.howdidthatbookend.com/
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