Readers Guide to The Perfect Hosts

At the party, Madeline sees a young waitress burgundy hair talking to Wes. Madeline’s midwife tells Johanna that Mellie is pregnant and a potential new client. 

The gender reveal involves Wes and Madeline shooting at a vintage truck that holds colored explosive powder.

She and Wes shoot at the truck, but there’s a huge secondary explosion that sends multiple people to the hospital, including Madeline and Mellie. Joanna is killed.

Madeline’s sister Lucy arrives in town, as does ATF agent Jamie Saldano, after he gets a call about the bombing. Jamie grew up in Nightjar, where people believe that nightjar birds are the souls of unbaptized children.

Jamie’s sister Juneau went missing one night, and he was hit by a car and beaten. Jamie is met by the deputy sheriff who tells him that Wes and Madeline are at the hospital and one person is dead.

Madeline and Wes insist that there were two separate explosions, the planned one for the gender reveal and another in the barn.

Jamie interviews his potential suspects:

The Prestons, the Drakes, Lucy, and Dalton. Mellie claims she saw Dalton coming out of the barn. Mia Preston says that Wes is a cheater, perhaps even cheating with Johanna.

Mellie shows up at Madeline’s house, and then a furious Dalton, who breaks in.

Jamie gets a call about an emergency at the Daltons. He finds Mellie, and then Dalton, who is with Madeline, insisting that Johanna and Wes were having an affair. Dalton attacks Wes. The sheriff arrives and shoots Dalton. 

Lucy finds photos in a secret compartment in her father’s old desk. Also Madeline’s will, which leaves everything to Lucy if Wes dies. She sets up secret cameras in the house.

Wes tells Mellie to leave but then they sleep together.

The party photographer shows up with her photos for Jamie.  She knew his sister Juneau and thought he was dating an older boy, possibly Wes. Jamie gets into Joanna’s phone and sees that she was texting with someone who tells her to stay away from his wife.

Jamie goes to talk to the sheriff who suggests that maybe Wes was abusive to Madeline.

Wes IS abusive. He orders Madeline to get Mellie out of the house. Joanna knew about Wes physically abusing Madeline and took photos as evidence. Madeline asks Mellie to leave and Mellie taunts her and tells her about the affair.

Jamie’s colleague Greta finds a record of someone purchasing of explosive supplies nearby and is working on getting CCTV. Jamie remembers the night of his attack and the unique bird motif boots the attacker wore.

Lucy tells Madeline to send a text to Wes saying they are through.

Then Lucy strangles Madeline with a belt so they can frame Wes. Wes arrives and Lucy shoots him in the shoulder. He offers Lucy money.

Madeline takes the gun from Lucy and shoots Wes dead.

Spoilers and the Ending Explained

Jamie, on his way to the ranch to talk to Wes, hears the shot. Lucy claims that Wes was killing Madeline. Madeline says Johanna knew about the abuse and Wes killed her.

Jamie looks at the CCTV footage of the person buying the supplies and knows.  When Dix comes to collect Wes’s remains, Jamie asks him why he killed Joanna? Dix is wearing the Nightjar boots that Jamie remembers the night he was beaten.

Epilogue- one year later

She and Lucy open an Equine Retreat with Wes’s money. Madeline reflects on the plan she and Lucy made. Lucy was supposed to come to the ranch only after the baby was born. Joanna contacted her because she thought Madeline was in grave danger.

Mellie shows up at the opening with a three month old baby.

Who Killed Joanna?

Theory one: Dix:

Jamie thinks that Wes’s brother Dix did. Dix was the one who bought the explosives. Jamie’s theory was that Dix intended to kill Wes, but that Joanna came into the barn and tripped the wire.

Why would Dix want to kill Wes? Two possible reasons. First, Wes might have known that Dix was responsible for Juneau’s disappearance and Jamie’s hit and run injuries. Or two, the book says that the Drake family is land rich and cash poor, so maybe Dix wanted his brother out of the way.

Theory Two: Wes, who framed Dix

Dix claims that Wes told him to buy the supplies, which is plausible. But who was Wes targeting? Yes, Joanna knew about Wes’s abuse of Madeline, and Joanna wrote in her diary, “I am scared that Wes will make me disappear.” But it seems like Joanna’s death was accidental.

What do you think?

Who Killed Juneau?

Also (probably) Dix.

At least that is Jamie’s working theory. I think the book is suggesting that Dix was Juneau’s secret boyfriend.

As far as I could tell, I don’t think the book is clear about what happened to her. We know that JJ (Jamie) and Juneau argued and he got out of the truck. Then a man driving that truck hit JJ.

Were Wes and Dix joyriding in the truck with Juneau, hit JJ, thought he was dead, and then killed Juneau as she was a witness?

Dix giving land to his brother suggests that maybe that was a payoff for keeping quiet, so perhaps he was driving.

Give me your thoughts in comments.

Who Ran Over Jamie?

Jamie also thinks that it was Dix, who was still wearing the bird boots that Jamie saw that night.

Leave questions, comments and corrections in the comments!