My Readers Guide to Don’t Let Him In discusses this new 2025 suspense title by popular UK author Lisa Jewell. My guide to Don’t Let Him In includes a character list (you might need it!), spoilers, my questions, and the ending explained (I think! You never know with a Lisa Jewell book… be sure to check out my post on None of This is True!)
Readers Guide to Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
Table of Contents:
- Don’t Let Him In: Jen’s Quick Take
- Character List for Don’t Let Him In: The Seven Identities of Nick
Don’t Let Him In: Jen’s Quick Take
- Don’t Let Him In is psychological suspense about a con artist who preys on women
- It’s a much more straightforward story than None of This is True and a few readers have said they were hoping for more twists.
- If you love podcasts like Dirty John (or the Netflix show) or Hey Beautiful on Hulu, this book is perfect for you!
- Published on June 24, 2025 by Atria Books. Thanks so much to the publisher for the advance copy.
Character List for Don’t Let Him in
Nick is the main character of Don’t Let Him In and known by seven different names (some of this a slight spoiler) but I think you get the gist of the story: he’s scamming multiple different women using different identities.
The Seven Identities of “Nick Radcliffe”
Nick Radcliffe: we first know him as Nick, who kindly reaches out to the Swann family after Paddy’s death.
Alistair Gray: but “Nick” is also married to Martha, a florist. And they have two young children together. Martha wonders why her husband keeps vanishing.
Jonathan Truscott: but wait, he’s also Jonathan and was with a woman named Tara. She’s missing, and her adult daughter HATES Jonathan.
Justin Warshaw: Yes, he also had a relationship with Laura Drummond.
Damian Law: way back, he married Amanda and they had two sons together. But “Damian” vanished and is presumed dead.
Andre: Nick goes by Andre to engage in sex work for extra money (having all these identities gets pricey!)
Simon Smith: the Matryoshka doll who is Nick ends with Simon Smith, which seems to be his birth name.
Here’s a Character List to help you keep it all straight while you are reading.
I consider this fairly spoiler-free, but if you’re worried, go to the red flag (heheh) of the person you are confused about: Nick, Alistair, Jonathan, Simon, André, Justin or Damian.
Plot Summary for Don’t Let Him In
I am not doing a full summary for Don’t Let Him In because it’s pretty straightforward until the end BUT if you have questions, please leave a comment and we will try to figure it out together!
If you need the summary, let me know in comments and I’m happy to add it!
- A man named Paddy Swann is killed, leaving behind a wife and three children.
- About a year later, Paddy’s wife Nina starts dating Nick, an old friend of Paddy’s who reached out after the funeral.
- Nina’s daughter Ash (who is recovering from a mental health crisis and her father’s death) is super-skeptical of Nick and starts investigating.
- We also get the POV of Martha, who is frustrated that her partner Alistair “Al” keeps vanishing.
- Gradually Ash unravels Alistair’s web of lies.
Don’t Let Him In: The Ending Explained
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Ash gathers together everyone whom “Nick” has scammed to confront him:
- her mother Nina
- Martha
- Amanda and Damian’s son’s Sam and Joe (Amanda is missing)
- Tara’s daughter Emma (Tara is also missing)
- some of the young woman that “Nick” creepily followed
- Jessie Bland, whom Nick tried to blackmail and extort
Nina outs “Nick” as Simon Smith
Nick loses it, lunging at Emma. She asks him where her mother Tara is.
Upset at being confronted, Nick/Simon runs dramatically into the freezing waters of the English Channel.
His two young adult sons run in after him. But the water is too cold, and they have to come back. Police helicopters search for him, to no avail.
So is Nick Dead?
He’s missing, presumed dead. He’s wanted for the extortion of Jessie Bland and to be questioned in the disappearances of Tara Truscott and Amanda Law.
Wait, Nick is alive? How does he survive at the end?
I don’t have an answer. If I missed something, leave a comment.
It is hard to believe he survived the freezing water if he really was caught by surprise and had no time to prepare (like get Amanda to come in a boat and scoop him up.)
Nick seemed genuinely shocked to be confronted.
When he goes into the water, mentions how cold it is. There are search helicopters looking for him.
I did some research, because people DO swim across the English Channel. It’s 21 miles, though, at the shortest point, which is at Dover on the UK side. And it’s recommended that you train for 2-3 YEARS.
Did Nick Kill Paddy?
Not with his own hands, but the book suggests that Nick was responsible.
Ash goes to see Joe Kritner, the mentally disturbed guy who pushed her father in front of the train. Joe claims that a “Silver Man” gave him fifty pounds and said that Paddy was a terrorist. The Silver Man told Joe to push Paddy in front of the train.
Ash shows Joe a picture of Nick and Joe identifies Nick as the “Silver Man.”
Please Explain the Letters at the End
Someone left me a comment saying they are confused. So I will try to explain it as I understood it. If you disagree, let me know in comments!
The story of Ash and the letters gets told bit by bit and you don’t get all the pieces until the end.
First off, Nick irrationally hated and was jealous of Paddy Swann and his success.
I guess because Nick is a psycho/sociopath, and needs another hobby, Nick decides to stalk Paddy and his family.
Through stalking the Swann family, Nick learns about Nina’s affair. Paddy is also having an affair with the hostess at one of his restaurants.
In addition, I guess just to mess with Ash and cause maximum chaos to the whole family, Nick starts writing fake letters to Ash from her married boss Ritchie. AND he also writes fake love letters from Ritchie to Ash.
- The fake letters to Ash, written by Nick, suggest that Ritchie is in love with her and they should be together. He asks her to meet him, etc.
- Meanwhile, Ritchie is also getting love letters, supposedly from Ash, that suggest she’s obsessed with him. Between these letters and Ash showing up to “meet” him, Ritchie accuses Ash of stalking him and his family.
- The letters all look alike, so everyone believes that Ash wrote them all: from Ritchie to her and from her to Ritchie. Ash doesn’t remember writing any of the letters, but becomes convinced that maybe she did and has a mental breakdown that severely shakes her confidence. Part of her storyline is learning to trust herself again.
A few months after all this letter drama blows up, Paddy dies and Nick steps into the picture.
The final letter revelation:
At the end of the book, right before the confrontation/intervention Nick mails a creepy letter to Ash suggesting that her family isn’t perfect. She shows it to Nina, who I think admits to Ash that she and Paddy didn’t have a perfect marriage and that they had been unfaithful to each other.
But then Ash notices that the paper and the font of the letter Nick sent her are identical to the ones she was accused of writing to and from Ritchie.
And she realizes that Nick was behind all of it:
Nick wrote the letters that her ex-boss, Ritchie Lloyd, wrote to her AND the love letters that Ash allegedly wrote to Ritchie.
But why does Nick Send a Letter to Ash?
He’s moving on from the Swann family and I think the letter to Ash is a final eff-you that will force Nina to admit to her daughter that her marriage with Paddy was not perfect.
Perhaps Nick also wonders if Ash will notice that his letter is the same as the ones she was accused of writing.
What Happens to Nick at the very end?
In the epilogue, the presumably missing Amanda is actually in Portugal waiting for her former husband, Damian.
Amanda is the only woman Damian/Nick/Simon was legally married to. He faked his death twenty years ago and reinvented himself.
Then, four years ago, after Nick/Simon/Jonathan killed Tara, Amanda helped him cover up the crime, then faked her own disappearance.
As Nick/Damian shows up for what he thinks will be a joyful reunion with Amanda, she reveals to the reader that she has contacted the police.
Amanda is ready to go to prison, and Damian/Nick/Simon is going there with her. Or so we hope!
Do you have questions about the book or anything you need to discuss? Leave a comment!
Hi! I feel stupid, but the epilogue totally confused me! How in the world did he survive the icy sea? How did no one spot him getting out? Just seems so very implausible. I couldn’t make sense of Amanda’s epilogue because of it but I guess I do now. Just didn’t feel like the ending was totally satisfying because it was confusing!
Hi!There are never any stupid questions on my site. If you were confused, that is valid. It happens to me too!
I agree that it would be nice to know who he survived, when his two young adult sons had to come back in to prevent hypothermia. I wish there had been a POV chapter for him to explain how he made it. Did he know it was coming? Wear a wetsuit under his clothes? But no, in his last POV he seems shocked by the intervention and describes the freezing water soaking his clothes.
I guess he’s just like one of those horror movie villains that keep popping up alive?
I don’t understand the significance of the letters at the end and what Nina and Ash discussed
I think I know what you mean, but if this isn’t what you asked, please let me know! I’ll add this to the post anyway since it might be confusing.
The story of Ash’s breakdown and the letters is sort of dribbled out and you don’t get all the pieces until the end.
Nick hated and was jealous of Paddy, and I guess because he’s a psycho/sociopath, Nick decides to stalk Paddy and his family.
Through this stalking, Nick learns about Nina’s affair, and I guess just to mess with Ash, Nick starts writing fake letters to Ash from her married boss Ritchie. AND fake love letters from Ritchie to Ash.
The fake letters to Ash (written by Nick) suggest that Ritchie is in love with her and they should be together. The letters asks Ash to secretly meet him, etc. Meanwhile, Ritchie is also getting love letters, supposedly from Ash, that suggest she’s obsessed with him.
Between these letters and Ash showing up to “meet” him, Ritchie accuses Ash of stalking him and his family.
And the letters all look alike, so everyone believes that Ash wrote them all: from Ritchie to her and from her to Ritchie. Ash doesn’t remember writing any of the letters, but what other explanation could there be? She becomes convinced that maybe she did and has a mental breakdown.
A few months after all this blows up, Paddy dies (also engineered by Nick) and Nick sends his condolences to the family.
At the end of the book, Nick mails a creepy letter to Ash suggesting that her family isn’t perfect. Ash shows it to Nina, who I think admits to Ash that she and Paddy didn’t have a perfect marriage and that they had been unfaithful to each other.
But then Ash notices that the paper and the font of Nick’s letters are identical to the ones she was accused of writing to and from Ritchie. And she realizes that Nick was behind all of it.