60 pages • 2 hours read
Samantha DowningMy Lovely Wife
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 43-58Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 43 Summary
After killing Holly and Robin, Millicent and the narrator started looking up potential women to kill online, then describing potential murder methods as an “aphrodisiac.”
The narrator takes Jenna to taekwondo, which she decides she does not like. He takes her to Krav Maga. She hits a boy with a rock. Some parents call the police, who do not arrest anyone, but Jenna is not allowed to come back to Krav Maga class. She tells the narrator she just wanted to see if she could do it. She did hit him, but she barely cut his lip, which the narrator secretly thinks would not be that helpful if she were facing a real serial killer.
Chapter 44 Summary
Due to Jenna’s condition, the narrator wants to stop the Owen scheme. Millicent agrees to kill Naomi while the narrator writes a letter from “Owen” to Josh, claiming to have left town.
The narrator says that after he killed Holly, Millicent cleaned up the body before the kids got home, seeming instantly to know what to do. The same thing happened after Millicent killed Robin.
Chapter 45 Summary
The narrator sends a final letter from “Owen” to Josh, reprimanding the police and the public for failing to save Naomi even though they were warned about the specific date of her kidnapping. “Owen” claims to be leaving town now that he has “won.” “Jane Doe” continues giving interviews on the news, and now there is a “Jane #2” who claims to have been attacked by Owen as well. Josh doesn’t seem to believe the Jane Doe stories but he covers them on the news anyway. The narrator catches Rory sneaking out and back into the house at night.
Chapter 46 Summary
The narrator takes Rory out to lunch and asks why he has been sneaking out at night. Rory claims he met his friend Daniel and played soccer just to see if they could get away with it. Rory does not sneak out the next few nights, but he is texting a lot. The narrator drops him off at school and notices a girl who is probably Rory’s girlfriend. The narrator wonders how long they have been together, whether Rory has had other girlfriends, and what else he has missed about his child while he was busy thinking about murder.
Chapter 47 Summary
The police find Naomi’s body in the trash behind the hotel where she worked. Now that she is dead and not just missing, nobody talks about her judgmentally anymore. Jenna and Rory debate whether Naomi was tortured more than Lindsay, or less. The narrator searches the house for his missing phone charger and finds some eye drops in the pantry behind soup cans as if someone hid them there. It is the type Millicent said she is allergic to.
Chapter 48 Summary
The narrator wonders if the eye drops are Rory’s and if he is using them to conceal any secret marijuana usage.
Kekona’s annual month-long trip to Hawaii is coming up. At her tennis lesson, she discusses Naomi, as well as Jenna, who has become neighborhood gossip due to hitting a boy with a rock in Krav Maga. The news says Naomi had been deceased only one day when her body was discovered. Millicent did not go anywhere suspicious on the day Naomi died, not even to the deli.
Chapter 49 Summary
The family goes to eat hot dogs after Jenna’s psychologist appointment. Rory’s girlfriend is named Faith, and she lives within walking distance of the family. Both Jenna and the narrator get sick, presumably from the hot dogs.
Chapter 50 Summary
The narrator feels more focused on his family, less focused on murder, and looks forward to this mess being over. He removes the tracker from Millicent’s car. He calls Andy to check up on him, but Andy doesn’t answer. Kekona is now in Hawaii.
News breaks that Owen is dead; his sister, Jennifer, confirmed this. After Owen got released, the siblings fled to Europe, where they stayed for years until Owen died of pancreatic cancer. The police have his death certificate. Jennifer wants to make it clear that the community should not be searching for Owen but for a different killer.
Chapter 51 Summary
The narrator meets Millicent to discuss Owen’s death. The narrator wants to move to another state. Millicent does not think they will get caught even though the police will no longer be distracted by Owen. Jenna is horrified that the real killer is still at large.
Chapter 52 Summary
The narrator catches Rory sneaking out again and tells him it is too dangerous with a murderer out there. Rory texts Faith to let her know. Rory promises he is not using marijuana, so the narrator thinks the eye drops may not be his after all.
Owen’s sister comes to town to show his death certificate on the news. The old friend who alerted her that Owen was being blamed for murders that happened after his death was Denise, the woman from the deli.
Chapter 53 Summary
The narrator still cannot ask Millicent about Denise or the deli, because he does not want to admit he was tracking Millicent. He thinks maybe it was only a coincidence. The narrator tells his kids that nobody is going to hurt them and they are not in danger, although this contradicts his warning to Rory not to sneak out. Millicent sees Denise on TV and reveals that she is her client, but finds it weird that she knew Owen’s sister.
Chapter 54 Summary
A new detective, Claire Wellington, comes in to investigate the murders of Naomi and Lindsay. She urges the community to come forward with anything strange they have seen, even if it does not seem important. Claire holds an assembly at Rory and Jenna’s school, and the narrator attends. Jenna wants to meet Claire, so they approach her after the assembly. Claire encourages Jenna to become a detective.
Chapter 55 Summary
Claire is a superstar detective, which worries the narrator. On the news, they have found an abandoned church with an underground “house of horrors” (286), which is presumably where Naomi and Lindsay were kept.
Chapter 56 Summary
The narrator is disturbed that Millicent kept the women in a church. Chains are attached to walls, and there is blood residue. The narrator wonders why Millicent did not bleach everything or even burn it down to get rid of evidence. However, he does not want to know the details. The narrator did not see Millicent stop at the church on GPS, because she stopped at a nearby house she was selling, and then walked to the church. Near the church, reporters have gathered and police are setting up a tent.
Chapter 57 Summary
Police find a message that either Naomi or Lindsay left on the wall of the church, but they do not share it yet. The narrator cannot believe Millicent did not see the message and cover it up. He hopes the message does not say anything that would incriminate himself or Millicent. Millicent does not seem concerned. Jenna asks the narrator why someone would hurt and kill Naomi and Lindsay. The narrator says some people are simply confused about what is good and what is bad. Jenna has faith that Claire will identify the murderer.
Chapter 58 Summary
The message on the wall of the church was written in blood, but they are still running tests to determine if it was Naomi’s or Lindsay’s blood. The newscasters have also not yet revealed what the message said.
The narrator discovers that Josh, the main reporter covering Lindsay and Naomi’s murders, frequents a certain pub. He goes inside and strikes up a conversation with Josh, talking about sports until the news comes on TV. Josh admits that he does not like Claire, the new detective, nor does he like it when women are in charge of things. Claire is not letting Josh share as much information on TV as he used to do, because she is enforcing a rule that others did not enforce before. Josh is still getting information he is not allowed to report yet, such as that the police have found additional bodies buried beneath the church.
Chapters 43-58 Analysis
The Wide-Ranging Effects of Infidelity and Murder multiply as the novel approaches its conclusion. Jenna’s reaction to the mysterious serial killer continues to worsen, especially after she learns that Owen is already dead and the real killer is somebody else in the community. For example, she hits a boy with a rock in Krav Maga class and subsequently becomes the subject of community gossip. Her parents continue to reassure Jenna that she will not be killed, but the real truth—that the killers are her parents—would, ironically, be just as upsetting for her to learn about.
In this section, the narrator begins directly to confront The Challenges of Parenthood. The narrator realizes that his and Millicent’s extracurricular murder activities have prevented him from paying close enough attention to his children. For example, he only realizes Rory has a girlfriend after he catches Rory sneaking out, and then starts paying more attention to his behavior. The narrator wonders what else he has missed out on, and laments this lost time that could have been spent with his children instead of stalking people and plotting murders. Out of all the reasons to put the Owen scheme to rest, the narrator chooses to end it because it is hurting his children. This demonstrates his core commitment to parenthood. Even though he is not always a perfect or even adequate parent, his choice to prioritize this above all else allows him to become a better parent in the end. He makes the opposite choice from his emotionally neglectful parents, indicating that he may have a chance of reversing the family traumas that are driving his and Millicent’s behaviors.
This section shows that The Complexity of Identity endures even in death. Characters who have already died, including Owen and Naomi, do not have fixed identities. Rather, public perception of these characters continues to change even after they have passed. For example, Naomi is viewed as innocent and good until people reveal that she slept with some hotel guests, at which point people start blaming her for getting kidnapped. When it turns out she has been murdered, public perception of her shifts again, becoming more sympathetic. The perception of Naomi also impacts the perception of Owen. At first, Owen is perceived as a monster, but after Naomi’s character grows more complex, people stop referring to him as a monster. This shows that identity is not fixed, but rather dependent on context and perception.
The narrator’s relationship with Millicent also emphasizes The Complexity of Identity. For a while, he tells himself he does not know every detail about her life simply because they do not have time to discuss everything. Over time, he begins to question whether she is intentionally keeping secrets from him, like he does from her. The idea that it is possible to live with someone without really knowing them is terrifying to the narrator. Millicent and the narrator’s secrecy and duplicity illustrate the ways that identity is shaped as much by what is concealed as by what is revealed.
