Readers Guide for When I Kill You

I’m not going to include the killer POV. It’s fun, but I don’t think it’s necessary to the plot and this is too long already. If you think I missed any clues in the killer POV, tell me in comments.

Prologue

Nell Masters has been told by someone named Alex how to escape when “they come for her.” But despite being prepared, she’s unable to follow his directions.

Part 1

Present

Nell’s been feeling like someone is following her. She has been seeing an American named Alex. Nell changed her name but always knew the past would catch up with her.

Past

Elle Nugent witnesses a man on a moped grabbing a young woman’s phone. A man in a car pulls up and offers to help the woman chase him. She gets in the car before Elle can warn her.

Elle decides to report the incident to the police. Then she sees a story about the body of a young woman being found in a burned out car.

Present

Nell met Alex at a party four months ago. He’s in his forties and has an adult son with his ex-wife. His girlfriend died two years before.

Past

Bryony Sanders’s murderer is not found, and Elle is worried that the perpetrator knows where she lives. She sees the man from the car again and follows him into the tube and all the way to his house.

Present

Nell asked Alex how his girlfriend died and he said she was murdered. Her name was Ariane.

Past

Jaz tells Elle that Briony Sanders’s body was found in was a rental car. The police won’t tell her anything. She goes to the house of the man she followed and speaks to his son who says his dad’s name is Brett Parker. Elle continues to follow Parker and his family. He tells her he has an alibi and to leave him alone.

Present

Nell goes out for drinks with Sadie and Simon, who’s a police officer. She wonders if Simon looked her up and knows about her name change.

She’s still creeped out thinking of Alex‘s murdered girlfriend. She tries to search Ariane’s name, but nothing comes up. She asked Alex questions and he says he’s the one who found her dead in her flat.

Past

Elle calls Brett Parker, who tells her she needs to leave him alone. Someone calls her and tricks her into giving her name. She wonders if Brett Parker has diplomatic immunity. The police tell Elle to stop contacting Brett Parker, but she won’t.

Present

Alex, who travels a lot for work, calls her and afterwards she reflects that they never do video calls and that he always calls her and not the other way around. She feels like she’s being followed. Alex’s sister calls and invites her for dinner.

Past

DC Sanders calls, threatening to charge Elle with harassment. Elle’s boyfriend Jaz tells her she’s a different person. She wonders why Brett wouldn’t have fled to the US if he murdered Bryony.

Present

Nell heads to her dinner party after work. Béatrice, Victor and Inès talk about skiing. They mention someone named Caitlin, who apparently was another of Alex‘s girlfriends. And she died in a skiing accident. Two dead girlfriends? That’s not weird at all.

Past

Jaz wants Elle to move out. She goes to follow Brett and his family and watches them through the window of a restaurant. Brett comes out of the restaurant, starts chasing her, and gets hit by a car.

Elle rushes home shaking and crying. DC Moss arrives but she refuses to open the door. Reporters show up the next day.

Elle is taken to the police station. There’s talk of charging her with involuntary manslaughter. The press in the UK and the US are hounding her.

Present

Nell, convinced that someone was inside her house, calls Sadie and Simon. The only people who could have access to her key are Sadie, Romy, Rob and Marcus. Or Alex. She wonders if it was Damon Parker, Brett Parker’s, son.

Past

Elle develops agoraphobia. When she finally goes out, someone pushes her into the road, where a bus nearly hits her.

She calls DC Moss to say that she thinks Damon Parker is stalking her, which is a bit ironic. Damon comes to her house and the police give him a warning.

Present

Alex tells Nell that Ariane died of stab wounds. She also worked for French intelligence, which is why Nell couldn’t find any new stories. Romy, Rob, and Marcus have come over to meet Alex. Alex wonders if Marcus has a thing for her.

Past

As Elle is on the tube platform, Damon Parker comes and pushes her onto the track. Commuters rescue her. DC Moss tells her that the train hit someone else, a rubbernecker. who died.

Elle isn’t charged but the family of the man who died blames her for his death. Damon receives a life sentence for premeditated manslaughter and shouts that he will get her when he gets out of prison. 

Elle‘s great aunt dies and she inherits the house. She asks her solicitor to help her change her name. She hopes it will keep Damon Parker from coming after her.

Part Two

Present

Nell hears someone in the house. She doesn’t find anyone but the bedroom window is open. (From the stalker POV, we know the stalker was under the bed!)

Alex is away another week but Nell finally gets her locks changed. When she gets home, someone has left her some dead funeral flowers.

At lunch, Nell and Inès talk about Maxime, Inès’s boyfriend of eight months. Inès happens to mention that Alex was in London the night before. Also, Ariane thought someone was following her before she died. Ariane was about to leave her job, and she and Alex were engaged.

Present

Nell goes over the timeline:

• Caitlin died in February 2022
• Alex and Ariana met in October 2022.
• Ariane died in July 2023.

Alex admits to being in London, but needed to talk to his ex-wife about family matters. Nell decides she needs to know where Damon Parker is. She calls and leaves a message for DC Moss.

Nell learns Damon Parker is still in prison. Also, they’re reopening the Sanders case. Moss is very interested that Nell think someone’s following her.

Marcus shows up at her house and Nell is a bit freaked out to be alone with him. He tells her he bought the house across from her.

Alex is back in London. She tells Alex that she’d like to move because Marcus moved right across the street. The gang comes over for dinner. Inès announced Maxime is moving in. Alex ask what she knows about Marcus.

Nell and Inès meet for a drink. Nell’s confesses that, like Ariane, she also thinks she has a stalker. Could Alex be the common denominator? And what about Caitlin? Why are all of his partners dead (except his ex-wife.)

Moss calls and says that Damon is getting out of prison next month.  She also said they found Bryony’s murderer: a lecture at her college, who confessed.Moss points out that once she announces this, the media will come after Nell again. Nell can’t believe that she was so wrong about Brett Parker.

On Christmas Sadie shows up with a roast chicken, a tiny Christmas tree and some presents. She knows who Nell is: boyfriend Simon recognized Nell as Elle. Sadie and Nell discuss the stalker, and Marcus moving across the street.

Sadie stays over. She and Nell share Nell’s bed, but Nell is restless, so she goes to sleep on the couch. When Nell wakes up the next morning, Sadie is dead  with a knife sticking out of her.

Present

Nell wants to stay in her house one more night to “say goodbye to Sadie.” ALONE, which makes absolutely no sense and makes me suspicious of her. She’s confessed everything to Alex. She feels guilty that now she’s responsible for the death of a third person, but she points out to Alex that the killer could have something to do with him.

Alex says okay. He gives her advice: nap during the day, barricade herself in the bedroom, scream, and don’t get trapped in the kitchen. Is it me or is this weird?!?!?

The police are supposedly looking for someone connected to her past.

Spoilers and The Ending Explained

Nell and her friends have a gathering after the funeral.

She call Simon and tells him that she knows that one of those people: Béatrice, Victor, Alex, Inès, Romy, Rob or Marcus is the killer. But who? She asked Simon to use Marcus‘s house for surveillance. Simon says Marcus had an alibi.

The electricity is cut at 9 PM. Nell is too scared to scream. She’s trapped in the kitchen. She asked who they are. She runs through all the possibilities: Alex, Marcus, Rob, Victor. But it could be a woman??? Nell grabs knife that the had taped under the counter and stabs her.

Yes it’s Inès!  She was obsessed with Alex since 2021. 

She and Alex flee  the country. Inés made up her flatmate and her boyfriend. She had disguises for stalking Nell. And notebooks. She killed both Caitlin and Ariane.

She is in a rage that Caitlin was on the ski trip. Bleh.

My Questions About When I Kill You

I was loving this! So many suspects. Alex, Damon, Marcus. I thought it was a bit disappointing that Inès was a serial killer of all Alex’s boyfriends. Béatrice did mention that she thought Alex and Inès would end up together and that she was “wonderful” after Ariane died.