*Summary and Spoilers*
Main Characters:
Tom- Nicole’s husband and owner of the Glass Barn
Nicole- Tom’s wife and owner of the Glass Barn
Ollie- Writer, house-sitter of Lancaut Manor, Sasha's partner
Sasha- Yoga instructor, house-sitter of Lancaut Manor, Ollie's partner
Anna- Owner of the Lancaut Manor
Kitty- Housekeeper at Lancaut Manor
Patrick- Tom’s best friend
Hal- police detective
Jen- police detective
Why you should read or listen:
I listened to this book, so please forgive any misspelling of character names. I loved listening to the narrators' voices. It helped me feel like I was in England and a part of the story. I loved all the twists, turns, and surprises in this book especially at the end! If you love a good mystery, then you should read the whole book, but if you don't have time or need a refresher, read my post.
But if you don't have time or need a refresher, continue reading!
Quick & Dirty Summary:
*Contains Spoilers*
Sasha and Ollie gaslight Anna into letting them live at the manor, firing the housekeeper, and becoming the housekeeper. Sasha and Ollie are running out of Anna's money so they decide to kill the neighbor, Tom, in order to get to his wife, Nicole, and her money. Instead, Nicole finds out what Ollie did and her and Anna kill him in the sauna. Anna takes her house back and plans to slowly torment Sasha as payback.
Complete Summary:
NOW
Nicole and Tom's lives were changed when they won 10 million pounds in the lottery. They built a massive house, the Glass Barn, in Gloucestershire on the same grounds as Lancaut Manor. They are enjoying their new life-style, but miss their friends and don’t get along with their neighbors, Ollie and Sasha.
One morning, Nicole finds Tom dead in the swimming pool. She calls the police and runs to her neighbors at the manor for help. Ollie gets Tom’s body out of the pool, but it’s too late. Tom is dead. The police arrive and interview Nicole, Ollie, Sasha, and Kitty, the housekeeper at the manor. Nicole believes that it was an accident and there is no reason for someone to kill Tom.
The detectives, Hal and Jen, believe that Tom was murdered because the injury on Tom’s head is from a weapon that cannot be found or identified. The investigators find a business card for a masseuse in Tom’s pocket and red lipstick on a coffee cup, that does not belong to Nicole. None of the suspects have a solid alibi. Nicole went to a market and bought fudge but she doesn’t have a receipt and there’s no CCTV on the streets she used. Ollie and Sasha are using each other as an alibi, but Sasha was teaching a yoga class and could not see Ollie for at least an hour. Ollie was in his study the whole time and would not have seen if Sasha left. Kitty was in the laundry all morning., but there is no way to prove that.
FIVE YEARS AGO
Anna is all alone at Lancaut Manor after the death of her husband. She has fallen into a depression, so her housekeeper, Kitty, encourages her to go to a yoga class. Anna continues to go to yoga and develops a friendship with the instructor, Sasha. Anna meets Sasha’s partner, Ollie, and all three become good friends. Anna invites Sasha and Ollie to move into the manor when they need a place to live. She allows Sasha to teach yoga at the manor, when she suddenly loses her space. She also allows Ollie to use her husband’s old study to write his novel.
Anna has been struggling with her memory. She keeps putting down things but forgetting where. She loses track or her phone and it ends up in the washer, destroyed. Kitty assures her that it happens to her too because she’s older, but Anna is concerned. One night, Ollie and Sasha convince Anna to have an intervention with Kitty. Ollie and Sasha accuse Kitty of purposefully moving objects around the house to confuse Anna and want to fire her. Kitty gets defensive and blames it on Ollie and Sasha. She accuses them of excluding Anna from anyone who isn’t them and controlling her.
NOW
Nicole invites Tom’s best friend, Patrick, to stay with her because she is afraid to stay at the Glass Barn alone. Tom was murdered there, she saw a stranger lurking around outside, and the house keeps playing tricks on her. The high-tech house has no working security system but keeps playing music randomly and loudly. It also turns on and off lights. Patrick arrives and apologizes for fighting with Tom the last time they were together. He says he is changed now and offers to help Nicole.
The investigators return to Lancaut Manor to interview Ollie and Sasha. They ask where the owner of the manor is. They inform them that Anna lives in Portugal now and they are taking care of the house for her. The investigators find this odd. Ollie and Sasha describe Kitty as untrustworthy and delusional. Their description of her is so similar, the investigators think they rehearsed it. They decide to interview Kitty but she won’t answer them in the house. At the police station, she shows them a passport and explains that she’s not Kitty but is actually Anna. Ollie and Sasha convinced her to become Kitty, the housekeeper. She leaves her journal with the investigators in hopes it will explain what happened.
Anna leaves the police station and runs into an old friend, Lucy. She realizes that she needs to get back in touch with old friends. When she returns to the manor, Sasha and Ollie question her about where she was. She told them she bought a new plant for the house. Ollie searches the house for the new plant. He finds the plant and also finds Anna’s journal. Anna’s real journal is at the police station, but Ollie thinks this is the real one. He takes pictures of all the pages and puts it back.
Hal and Jen read the real journal and are not sure what to believe. The last entry describes Sasha cleaning and scrubbing the cottage after Kitty leaves. The description makes them wonder if Ollie and Sasha killed Kitty. Ollie and Sasha read the fake journal. The last entry describes Anna seeing Ollie and Sasha carrying something heavy in the middle of the night. They are worried about what Anna could tell the police.
MORNING OF TOM’S DEATH
He wakes up in the middle of the night to get chocolate and sees someone in the yard. He yells out to them but there is no answer. When he checks the security camera, he accidentally deletes the footage and shuts down the system. Nicole’s birthday present, a life-sizes sheep, arrives early and he has to find somewhere to store it. Patrick show up at the house to ask Tom to invest in a company. Tom gets mad and asks him to leave.
NOW
Patrick leaves the Glass Barn to run an errand but leaves his phone at the house. It rings and Nicole answers it. She gets an ear-full from someone saying Patrick owes him a lot of money and he will be hurt if he doesn’t pay. Nicole sneaks to the manor house and calls the police. Hal goes to the Glass Barn and questions Patrick. He admits to owing someone money but claims he is only here to help Nicole. He lies to the detective and tells him that the last time he saw Tom was over a month ago. The detectives tell Nicole what Patrick said. Nicole asks them to tell Patrick to leave her house. Patrick sends Nicole a text apologizing. Nicole asks Anna to stay with her at her house.
Jen tries to locate Anna’s housekeeper Kitty. She finds her sister and questions her. Kitty’s sister hasn’t seen or heard from her in 20 years. The sister suggests that the detective track down their nephew, Oliver aka Ollie. She warns Jen that Ollie is a “nasty thing”.
MORNING OF TOM’S DEATH
Tom puts on chap stick but realized it’s lipstick. Then he drinks his coffee, leaving a lipstick mark on his mug. Tom continues to find a place to hide the sheep. He tries to get a ladder down but when it comes down, one of the feet hit Tom’s forehead. He doesn’t bleed but has a headache. He finds someone’s bag in the garage and thinks someone has been staying there so he goes out on the property to look. He finds a camp set-up and a man returning. He asks the man to get off his property and the man threatens to return.
The man does return while Tom is by the pool. He wants to yell at Tom, but can see that Tom doesn’t feel well and looks like he’s going to pass out or fall over. He has Tom sit on a longue chair. They both hear someone else coming, so Tom tells the man to hide.
NOW
Hal and Jen find the masseuse, Sadie, from the business card. She has never met Tom. She’s not sure how Tom got her business card. Sadie told the detectives that she had a stalker for a while that might have broken in into her flat and taken the business cards. The stalker was her neighbor, Ben.
The first night that Anna stays at Nicole’s house, Sasha and Ollie relocate Kitty’s remains. Anna set up a camera to film them moving it, but she guessed the burial place incorrectly and doesn’t catch them. Patrick shows up at the manor the next morning and tells Ollie that he saw them moving human remains last night and blackmails him. Ollie asks him to come back later to get the money. When Patrick returns to get the money, Ollie kills him. Sasha comes in and sees what Ollie has done and gets angry. She believes that Ollie is being reckless.
At the Glass Barn, Anna asks the detectives to search the old plague pit on the property. This is where Kitty was originally buried. Hal does not feel well and asks Jen to look into it later. Nicole is out by the pool and gets a visitor. It is the man who was camping on the property and spoke with Tom the morning of his murder. He tells Nicole everything about that morning and describes the man who arrived after he left. His description matches Ollie. The man, Ben, explains that he didn’t contact the police because he used to stalk his neighbor and was afraid that the police were looking for him.
In the evening, Jen and an officer arrive to scope out the plague pit. They hear someone in the woods but can’t see them. They try to follow them, but get lost. Eventually, they make it back to the manor and question Ollie and Sasha. Sasha had been the person in the woods. She made it back to the manor, changed and cleaned up in time for her to look innocent.
While questioning Ollie and Sasha, Jen mentions that she knows “Kitty” is really Anna. She also asks about the original Kitty and asks Ollie if he misses his aunt. At this point, Sasha knows they are in trouble, so she throws Ollie under the bus and says that he did go to the Glass Barn the morning of Tom’s death. Ollie escapes the house through the walls and underground tunnels.
The ending
MORNING OF TOM’S DEATH
After Tom tells the man, Ben, to hide, Ollie arrives to invite Tom and Nicole over. Tom asks Ollie to take him to the hospital because he is unwell. Ollie claims he can’t drive and won’t call for help. Sasha arrives and yells at Ollie to do it. Ollie pushes Tom into the pool and then hold him underwater until he drowns.
NOW
Ollie makes his way to the Glass Barn, where Anna and Nicole are. Ollie uses the guest pin that he stole off Patrick’s dead body and gets into the house. The detectives warn Nicole that Ollie is on the loose. Nicole uses her app to lock up the house. While using the map, Anna and Nicole notice that another guest pin is in the house, Patrick’s. They think Patrick is in the fitness area. Nicole goes down there but before she gets to him, she sees his shadow and realizes it isn’t Patrick, it’s Ollie.
Nicole returns to Anna in the main living room and explains what happened. Ollie runs to the sauna and doesn’t realize that Nicole knows he’s in the house. Anna and Nicole use the app to lock Ollie in the fitness area. They think about calling the police, but instead they lock the door to the sauna and turn up the heat.
The next morning, search teams are still out looking for Tom. Nicole asks Jen if she and Anna can leave the property to take a walk and go into town. Nicole drives Tom’s car with Ollie’s dead body in the back to a river. They fill his pockets with rocks and Anna walks him out to the deepest spot and lets him sink.
Anna knows she can live with what she has done to Ollie because he deserved it. He forced her out of her home and stole from her. Nicole knows she can live with what she has done to Ollie because she has killed before. Years ago, Nicole took care of Tom's ill mother, even though she was nasty to Nicole. Every night she got Tom's mom a lottery ticket. The night that the ticket was a winner, Nicole suffocated her with a pillow, so that her and Tom could live in peace with the 10 million pounds.
The epilogue
A few weeks later, Anna moves back into the manor. She allows Sasha to move into the small cottage on the property and hold yoga classes at the manor. She plans on getting her revenge on Sasha slowly. Nicole goes into the garage to put something in storage. She finds the life-size sheep that Tom bought her. She knows that her and Tom’s growing baby will love it as much as she does.