Readers Guide for Not Quite Dead Yet

Quick Plot Summary for Not Quite Dead Yet

This book is a pretty straightforward mystery, with Jet and Billy circling around town, gathering clues, and getting closer and closer to the culprit (or culprits).

So I’ll highlight the main revelations, and then tackle these (and other) questions:

Why is Jet Dying?

What Happened to Emily?

What was the motive for Jet’s attack?

If you have more questions, think I missed (or messed up) something, PLEASE leave me a comment!

Halloween:

After attending the town’s annual Halloween fair, Jet is ambushed from behind and hit on the head. Billy finds her and gets help

Nov 2:

Jet wakes up in the hospital. For an explanation of her medical condition, see “why is Jet dying?” below.

Jet wastes no time getting her investigation started. Using her Apple watch, she gets a location on her missing phone and helps the police pinpoint the time of her attack. She also checks the doorbell camera for her house and sees a man with a mask.

Nov 3:

Jet learns someone took out a loan in her name and she and Billy try to track down a red wig hair found at the scent.

Nov 4:

After examining all the photos of the Halloween Fair, Billy and Jet find clues:

• Luke, who says he scratched his arms at work, was lying
• Two people were wearing red wigs: her ex JJ, his brother Henry, and Andrew Smith.

Andrew Smith says he has an alibi but also reveals that on Halloween he told Luke that he wouldn’t be inheriting the family company as he expected. He also gives her a lead on her missing phone.

Jet and Billy head to the site of Andrew’s former home, now a construction site.

They break open some newly poured concrete to discover Jet’s phone, a bloody kitchen dishtowel, and the murder weapon: a hammer.

Jet learns that the hammer is only sold as part of a tool set. They discuss the accidental drowning of Jet’s sister Emily in the family pool when she was sixteen and Jet was ten. More on that below!

Nov 5:

Jet manages to get into Luke’s phone, and realizes that his alibi for her attack, which is that he was home with his wife, is a lie.

They go talk to Red Wig Wearer #2, Henry. Someone beat Henry up and he bought a gun. He’s also still recovering from an accident when he “fell off a wall.” Uh-huh. He claims not to know where his brother JJ is.

After that, the police arrest JJ, as he’s the one who took the loan out on Jet’s truck.

Billy and Jet go back further in the Mason home’s doorbell footage and learn that Sophia has been swiping her father-in-law’s blood pressure medication and replacing it with salt. They confront her, and she threatens to tell Billy a big secret that Jet is keeping.

Not finished yet, Jet drops a bombshell on Luke: he’s not inheriting Mason Construction.

After that, Billy and Jet break into the construction company, where they discover all kinds of fraudulent bookkeeping.

As they are gathering evidence, someone sets the building on fire. Jet and Billy barely make it out alive.

Nov 6:

Jet goes to see Henry again, telling him that she found evidence that he was working off the books for Mason Construction, and that his accident was a workplace accident.

Henry admits it and adds that is why JJ took out the fraudulent loan: to help pay Henry’s medical bills. Henry also admits the Luke beat him up for asking for more money to pay his bills.

The police think Jet set the fire. Her mother points to another possible suspect: a person who anonymously attended a town meeting, disguising their identity with a cat filter, and complaining about Mason construction ruining the town.

Jet is convinced that Nina Smith, Andrew’s late daughter and Emily’s former best friend, is the Cat. So she and Billy break into Andrew’s house AND Nina’s computer.

Since Nina took her own life, she can’t be the Cat, but Jet discovers that Nina wanted to talk to Billy’s mother about Emily.

Nov 7:

Jet and Billy discuss Emily’s accident again and the possibility that Luke killed her.

Sophia spills Jet’s secret to Billy: Jet blackmailed his mother into changing her grade so she could get into Dartmouth.

After that, Mrs. Finney left town. Billy is distraught as he always blamed himself for his mother leaving.

The police arrest Jet for arson. She believes Luke is the one who set the fire.

Jet sits in her jail cell, trying to put all the pieces together.

She has the most regret about Billy. She asks for her one phone call and uses it to leave a message for Billy. Then she asks for paper and starts writing letters.

A witness comes forward and the police let Jet go. She and Billy are going to finish what they started!

Finally, Luke confesses. He got angry at Emily because she said that their father wasn’t his real father.

He seems to know who his father is, but he won’t tell her. He says his father looked out for him after Emily‘s death. (More on that in What Happened to Emily? below)

Jet drops a tracker in Luke’s pocket. She’s convinced that Luke’s biological father attacked her and that Luke will head to him, exposing him.

Then she finds a set of tools in Billy’s house. The hammer is missing.

She accuses Billy of killing her. He’s crying, and denying it. Then she screams as she’s dying.

Finally, Billy tells her, “yes it was me” but she says “no it wasn’t.”

Nov 15:

Billy tells his dad Jack that he knows Jack is Luke’s father. Jack’s affair with Dianne Mason went on until just after Emily died.

Jack was the one who protected his son after Emily’s drowning. (See What Happened to Emily?)

Brandishing the gun Jet took from Henry, Billy accuses his father of killing Jet.

Billy claims his dad was angry that Dianne Mason didn’t vote for him to be chief police. Then Andrew told Jack that Luke wasn’t going to inherit for construction company and Jet was standing in the way.

Jack apologizes for hurting Jet because he realized Billy loves her. Uh… okay.

Jack thinks Billy’s been recording the conversation. But Billy actually called Luke so he could listen to the whole thing.

Luke (who suddenly has decided that Jet is more important than the construction company) grabs the gun off the table and points it at Jack.

Jack runs, and Luke goes after him. The police and Diane shows up. Luke shoots Jack twice.

Billy writes a new song for Jet.

Why is Jet dying?

After her assault, Jet has a bone fragment lodged near a major artery in her skull. Because of her polycystic kidney disease, her arteries are even more prone to rupture, causing a brain bleed/aneurysm. Surgery has a 10% success rate, so Jet decides to solve her murder instead.

What Happened to Emily?

The initial story: Emily was swimming in the pool, her hair got tangled in the pool filter, and she drowned. Jet’s mom blamed Jet (because she and her husband were watching Jet at a spelling bee.)

Dianne blamed Jack Finney because she asked him to check in on Emily and Luke.

Luke’s account of Emily’s death:

He claims that Emily told him that he wasn’t a real Mason. He jumped into the pool (where she was swimming) and pushed her under.

Luke claims it was an accident, but Jet points out that all the scratches on his arms suggest otherwise. He also says his biological father “looked out for him” after Emily drowned.

Billy offers his recollections:

Billy was home and Luke came knocking at the door. As the two of them played, Luke went to get a ball that landed in the bushes and got dramatically scratched up. But Billy thinks that Luke’s arms got scratched before that, and that he smelled like chlorine.

After that, Billy’s mom took Luke home, where they discovered Emily at the bottom of the pool. She yelled and Jack came over, jumped in and then asked Luke to get scissors to cut her hair loose.

Billy’s theory to Jack:

Jack’s wife had suspicions about an affair, but thought that Jack was sleeping with sixteen year-old Emily. She also noticed that her husband was wet before he “discovered” Emily’s body.

Then, years later, when Jet asked Mrs. Finney to change her grade, this brought it all back and she left.

So what happened?

My theory:

• Emily taunted Luke, saying her dad wasn’t his dad
• A furious Luke pushed Emily under the water, holding her down until she drowned.
• Luke then went running to Jack, who helped him stage the drowning as an accident by pushing Emily’s body down to the drain until her hair caught.
• Jack then told Luke to pretend to scratch his arms in the bushes, then go home and “discover” Emily’s body. What do you think?

A guilty Dianne blamed her own daughter (!) and broke off her long-term affair with Jack.

Why did Jack Attack Jet?

Billy suggests that Jack hated Scott Mason: his money and success, the fact that he raised Jack’s biological son. Also, Scott was married to Dianne, whom Jack had a long-term affair with.

Then, on Halloween, Jack found out that Dianne hadn’t voted for him to be police chief AND Andrew Smith drunkenly told Jack that Scott was going to sell the company. It’s suggested that Scott thought leaving the company to Luke over Jet was unfair, and that selling it was more fair.

I guess Jack thought if Jet was out of the picture, then Scott would leave the company to Luke. I don’t think that’s true, but that’s the explanation.

Why Does Billy Confess?

I think because he wanted Jet to die thinking she’d solved the crime. But in the end, she realizes it wasn’t him, and maybe even who the real killer was. What do you think? Tell me in comments!

Is Jack Dead?

It’s unclear but it doesn’t look good for him.

Who Was the Cat Person?

Jet is pretty certain that it was Nina, Andrew Smith’s daughter Someon using a cat filter to hide their identity attended the Village Trustee Meeting about a year ago.

Nina was Emily’s best friend and Emily messaged her that she heard her parents arguing about Luke. Emily died shortly thereafter.

After the trustee meeting, Dianne got Nina fired. Nina took her own life a few weeks after the meeting.

Did Dianne bully Nina into taking her life, or did she kill her to keep her secret?

True Crime Inspirations for Not Quite Dead Yet?

I felt the GGGTM series was probably inspired by Serial and that The Reappearance of Rachel Price was definitely inspired by a very famous True Crime case as well.

The only thing I thought of in this book was the missing phone under the concrete, which really reminded me of a seriously creepy detail in this (finally solved) case.

If you are interested, the Your Own Backyard podcast, is a really interesting deep dive into the case and I recommend it!

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