Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for The Unheard

Have you read The Unheard by Nikki French? Need a plot summary, a character list or want to discuss the ending? Check out my Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for The Unheard.

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Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for The Unheard

Here’s a table of contents for the post:

Characters in the Unheard

Plot Summary for the Unheard

Spoiler Discussion (my questions and yours) about the Unheard

Characters in The Unheard by Nikki French

Tess: a teacher who has a three year-old daughter, Poppy, with her ex-partner, Jason

Jason: ex-partner of Tess and father of Poppy

Emily: Jason’s new wife

Ben: Emily’s brother, who is staying with Emily and Jason

Gina: Tess’s friend

Laurie: Gina’s husband

Nadine: Tess’s co-worker

Alex: Nadine’s partner, a psychotherapist

Bernie: Tess’s neighbor

Aidan: new guy Tess is dating

Kelly Jordan: a police officer

Felicity: a cello teacher who is Ben’s ex-wife

Skye: young woman who died in a fall

Peggy: Skye’s mother

Charlie and Hannah: Skye’s friends

Inga, Lara and Nicole: woman that Jason cheated on Emily with. Inga is a teacher at Jason’s school, Lara is a friend of Emily

Ellen: a woman that Jason cheated on Tess with

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Plot Summary of The Unheard

Tess has split from her partner Jason, with whom she shares a three year-old daughter, Poppy. One day, Poppy returns home from a visit with Jason and his new wife, Emily. Poppy shows Tess a disturbing drawing of a woman falling from a tower and says that “he killed her.”

Disturbed by Poppy’s drawing and some uncharacteristic behavior, Tess takes Poppy to see Alex, a psychotherapist. He says her behavior could be indicative of trauma. Tess then tells the police about Poppy’s drawing and her insistence that a woman was murdered, but they tell Tess that is not enough to investigate.

Tess takes Poppy to Emily and Jason’s house. Emily says that her brother Ben and his dog Roxie are staying with them temporarily. Jason tells Tess that Ben’s marriage fell apart and that he lost his job. He also announces that Emily is pregnant.

The Mysterious Woman Appears

A mysterious pixie-ish woman comes up to Tess as she and Aidan dine in a restaurant. She insists that she knows Tess. 

Tess asks her friend Gina if she thinks Jason was unfaithful. Gina’s discomfort is obvious and she eventually admits that Jason cheated on Tess. 

Tess meets Ellen, the woman Jason cheated with. Ellen is still devastated by the breakup and says that Jason came on strong and told her that his relationship with Tess was over. Ellen says she thinks Jason has the capacity to be violent and that he probably cheated with others too.

Poppy contines to suggest there has been a murder

Poppy’s teacher tells Tess that she bit another student. Poppy denies it but says that Jason hurt someone. Then she suggests it was Ben.

Tess confronts Jason about his affair. He tells her that was in the past. She mentions Poppy’s acting out.

Tess starts researching murders in the area.  She doesn’t find anyone who died in a fall but realizes that a “fall” could be presumed to be suicide. She tries to rearrange Poppy’s days with Jason but he refuses and tells her she’s acting crazy. In an attempt to figure out what’s going on, Tess spies on Poppy’s time at Jason’s house. Emily gives Poppy some clothes for her school dress-up bin.

Tess finds a news story of a young woman who died in a fall but her death happened after Poppy drew her picture. Then Poppy says she went to a zoo when her school field trip is in the future. Is Poppy psychic? Or did the school just tell them about the trip ahead of time?

Tess finally finds out the identity of the woman who fell

Tess goes back to the police, who again tell her there’s nothing to investigate. She recalls something that Ben, Emily’s brother, said when she met him, and finds a cello teacher whom she emails. A police officer, Kelly Jordan, comes over with details on the woman who fell. Her name is Skye Nolan, and she had suffered from depression (and it also sounds like bipolar disorder). 

Tess looks at a picture of Skye and remembers her: the pixie woman who insisted she knew Tess. Kelly offers to talk to Poppy.

Who is the woman from Poppy’s Drawing?

The police show Poppy a photo of Skye and Poppy becomes distressed. Kelly gets the investigator in charge of Skye’s case to speak to Tess. The police want to question Jason, Aidan and Ben. They go to Ben’s workplace, which upsets him. Aidan confronts Tess about not telling him she went to the police, and she breaks up with him.

Kelly tells Tess that Skye was dead when someone threw her off the balcony. Tess goes to a girls’ night and when she returns, she’d certain someone has been in her flat.

Tess goes to talk to Felicity, the cello teacher. She’s Ben’s ex-wife and says that Ben had mental health issues but was not violent.

Tess goes to the inquest into Skye’s death and meets Skye’s mother, Peggy, and her friend Charlie. She also begins to look for Skye’s dog walking clients.

Tess breaks into Jason’s computer and finds emails from him to other women. She emails one of the women to see if she knew Skye. She learns that one of the women Jason was emailing is Emily’s best friend.

A Connection is Made!

Skye’s mom calls Tess and asks if she can help go through Skye’s things, which include clothing and a watch with a leather band. In a photo, Tess recognizes a cap that she thought Emily gave Poppy for playing dress-up. She goes to Poppy’s school and collects the cap as evidence.  

Tess goes back to talk to Peggy and finds her dead and the apartment ransacked. Tess feels like there is something missing but can’t figure out what it is. The police take Tess for questioning and tell her that she is the connecting factor in the murder. She’s going to be late to pick up Poppy, but Laurie offers to take her.

Jason shows up at Tess’s house the next morning with a friend who is a solicitor. She suggests that Tess needs to stay away from Jason. Skye’s friend Charlie comes over, upset, as he feels he failed Skye.

One of the women Jason cheated with, Inga, tells Tess that Jason manipulated her. She also has emails detailing his sexual harassment of another colleague.

What Was the Ending of the Unheard?

Tess asks Laurie if he ever met Skye while walking his mother’s dog, but he denies it. Tess is very tempted to tell Emily about Jason’s infidelity. She decides against it, but goes to see Aidan and tells him the entire story.

But when Aidan says his watch is missing, she feels a growing sense of unease. She searches his flat and finds the same watch that Peggy showed her among Skye’s belongings.

Tess goes to the police and tells them about the watch, and also about a doll that Poppy tore up and threw away that mysteriously reappeared in their house. The police tell Tess that Aidan has an alibi for Skye’s murder and suggest that Tess is the one who stole Aidan’s watch.

Aidan shows up after Tess picks up Poppy from Emily.

Tess realizes that Aidan killed both Skye and Peggy

Now Tess is convinced Aidan killed Skye (to cover up their affair) and then killed Peggy to get his watch back and cover up his connection to Skye.

Tess thinks Skye followed Aidan back to Tess’s house. That Skye took the doll out of the trash and sewed it up and also put the cap in Poppy’s backpack. (More on this down in the Question section because there are QUESTIONS.)

Aidan says he wants to live with Tess and Poppy. Tess is still very uneasy but invites him over. He initiates sex and she doesn’t refuse.

The next morning, she calls the police and lies, saying that Aidan threatened to kill her because she knew he killed Skye and Peggy. Aidan says that Tess is framing him, but the police believe Tess. (Which is funny because the first time they believe her is the time she’s lying.)

Jason is angry about Tess dating a murderer, but she says she has evidence of his cheating and sexual harassment. So I guess that makes them even.

A year later, a widower in Poppy’s class asks Tess out. She says no.

Spoiler Discussion for The Unheard:

I have question and I want to hear yours. Let’s discuss the book!

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Questions from Comments: Did Aiden really do it?

The MAIN question in comments is:

1. Is Tess “framing” Aiden to get justice because he’s a wily killer and the police never believe her OR
2. Is Aiden innocent and being framed by Tess, who is mentally unbalanced?

I think there is evidence both ways. Let’s discuss. If you have things to add, put them in comments

Evidence Aiden is guilty

• Aiden did sleep with Skye. Yes, all her friends was that she had a fling with a guy who picked her up in a bar and said he was in a relationship (so I guess it could be Laurie or Jason) but I think no, because of the fact that Skye turned up in that restaurant with Aiden’s hat to mess with Aiden.
• Poppy did see something, or else she’s psychic. Poppy says HE killed her. I agree that’s hard to figure out how/where/when Poppy could have seen this.
• After Tess calls the police, Aiden says “you’ll never get rid of me.” Creepy.
• Aiden had a secret key to Tess’s flat, which is very creepy.
• Poppy seems to dislike/be afraid of Aiden.
• Even if someone else killed Skye, it doesn’t really make sense for anyone but Aiden to kill Peggy. It makes more sense that Aiden did it to get the watch back.

Evidence that Aiden was framed by Tess

• It’s hard to figure out how/when Poppy could have seen Aiden threatening Skye, and Tess’s explanation to the police is pretty weak (that Skye came over when Tess was in the shower or out at the shops.) I mean, maybe. If Skye was following Aiden, she could have watched the house, waited until Tess went out, and had a fight with Aiden that Poppy witnessed.
• It’s also hard to figure out (see below) how and when Aiden’s hat ended up in Poppy’s back pack. It’s also unclear how/when the doll ended up there too. It’s weird and doesn’t really make sense.
• The only motive I can see for this is that Tess is the one who killed Skye. But why? Aiden seems much more invested in the relationship than she is. Tess is way more obsessed with the fact that Jason cheated? If she’s going to frame someone, why not frame Jason for Skye’s murder?

I think the best twist would have been that Jason actually cheated with and killed Skye.

• Jason is a known cheater
• That could explain Poppy overhearing an angry fight between a man and Skye
• It would better explain how the doll got into Poppy’s backpack

But the holes in this are:

• Skye came to threaten Aiden by holding his cap (at least Tess says it’s Aiden’s cap)
• It doesn’t explain why Skye had Aiden’s watch
• Why wouldn’t Skye threaten Jason instead? Why bother with Jason’s ex and her new boyfriend?

Question from Marilyn in the comments: When/Why/How does the cap get put in Poppy’s backpack?

This is a very excellent question. I understand the why, but when I went back to re-check the when/how, I was confused by what Tess said in the book.

The why: Skye met Aidan in a bar and they had a couple of nights together. He told Skye that he was with someone else, but she didn’t accept that. Aidan also knows that Tess won’t tolerate cheating.

Skye showed up at the restaurant where Tess and Aiden were eating, holding Aidan’s cap (which maybe he either left at her place because her friend said their hookups were at her flat.) To me, this was a clear threat from Skye to Aidan that she’s not going to be dumped without taking down his relationship with Tess.

When Aiden clearly chooses Tess over Skye, I guess Skye upped the ante and put the cap in Poppy’s backpack, as a threat. Then he kills her.

But how did the cap get into the backpack?

Toward the end of the book, Tess says that Skye must have “slipped the cap into Poppy’s little backpack that day in the park with Jason.” But WHEN did this happen?

Let’s review the timeline:

• Skye shows up at the restaurant, waving the cap around as a threat to Aiden
• Right after that, Tess finds the mangled doll (Millie) in the trash bin
• Tess meets up with Jason but in a cafe, not a park. He takes Poppy’s overnight bag from Tess.
• Tess spies on Jason, Emily and Poppy having breakfast at a cafe near a park, but there’s no backpack mentioned, and nothing about Skye.
• Jason drops Poppy back off after their weekend together, along with her overnight bag and a black bin bag (which I think had items from Emily for Poppy’s nursery school dress-up box)
• Tess discovers the cap and Millie (now repaired) in Poppy’s backpack.

Marilyn is right: how and when did this happen?

I can accept that Skye followed Aiden back to Tess’s house, went through her trash (weird, but ok) and took the doll.

But how did the doll and the hat get into the backpack. What day in the park? It would have to be the morning that Tess was spying on Jason, but how did Skye manage this with ALL of them around?

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What did you think of Tess?

I had sympathy for her, but I have to say that some of the things that she did were kind of dumb. In some ways I thought The Unheard was a classic domestic suspense novel with a lot of good gaslighting. (That link is to some of my favorite domestic suspense novels!)

On the other hand, you could argue that Tess did stumble on real things (two murders and Jason’s affairs) but was also a mixture of way too trusting and way too suspicious. And reckless!

I’m wondering if making Jason a cheater was a way to make Tess’s behavior seem a little less unhinged (and thwart his trying to get custody of Poppy.)

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Did you think Tess was credible, and that the police messed up by constantly sending her away?

They kept sending her away, suggesting she was a hysterical woman. But at first she didn’t have much to go on. Is Tess “the Unheard???”

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Did you think Aidan in The Unheard was a viable suspect?

I was pretty sure the killer was Laurie (since Jason, Bernie, and Ben seemed like such obvious red herrings.

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What did Poppy actually see?

It doesn’t seem like she saw the murder, just saw Aidan with Skye and possibly heard Aidan threatening Skye. For her to draw the picture of a woman falling seemed like a bit of a stretch.

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What other questions or comments do you have about the Unheard? Put them in comments and let’s talk!

Looking for more book discussions? Check out my full list on Armchair Book Club! Or there’s an alphabetical list of Spoiler Discussions here if you prefer!