Spoiler Discussion for Nine Lives

Have you read Nine Lives by Peter Swanson? Need a plot summary? Have questions about why the killer wanted to kill all those people? Have comments about the connection between Nine Lives and And Then There Were None? Need a list of characters? You have found the right place on the internet, so settle in and let’s talk! Welcome to my Spoiler Discussion for Nine Lives.

Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for Nine Lives

Feel free to read the whole post but if there is specific information you’re looking for, here’s a list of what is in the post:

Plot Summary for Nine Lives

What Was the Ending of Nine Lives?

What Was the Motive in Nine Lives?

Spoiler Discussion for Nine Lives

Plot Summary for Nine Lives

Who gets the list?

Alison is meeting her married lover, Jonathan. She receives a list of nine names in the mail.

Arthur, a nurse injured in the car accident that killed his husband Richard, also receives the list.

So does Ethan, an aspiring songwriter, also gets the list as does Jessica, an FBI agent, who will soon be testifying in the William Brandy murder case. She’s sleeping with a married co-worker, Aaron. Caroline, a professor, is also on the list.

Jay, an actor, also gets the list. It throws it away. He follows a girl around planning to murder her. Matthew, a dad of three, gets the list as does Frank, owner of a resort in Maine. 

That’s Only Eight People. Who is the Other One? Good Question!

Victim #1: Frank

Frank is murdered in the beach after being asked if he knows why he is going to die. The police find the list in his hand.

Aaron tells Jessica that someone on the list just died. Jessica calls as many people on the list as she can and gets a few copies of the list for forensic analysis.

Matthew contemplates an affair. Ethan contacts Caroline about the letter and they bond over poetry.

Victim #2: Matthew

Matthew goes running the next morning and also ends up dead. Aaron tells Jessica about Mathew’s murder. Ethan and Caroline get put into protective custody.

Hello, Potential Victim Nine!

Jack, an author, finally gets his list, which had been sent to his old address. He thinks he should call back the FBI agent who had called asking about it. He has coffee with Margaret, a new neighbor.

Sam Hamilton, the detective on Frank’s case, learns that it went federal due to Matthew’s murder. Sam is an Agatha Christie fanatic and decides to re-read And Then There Were None. Good call! (Check out my list of other thriller titles inspired by And Then There Were None!)

Victim #3: Arthur

Arthur is killed by a device releasing carbon monoxide.

Jessica and Aaron discuss the murders and any connection between the victims. Jessica decides to go hide out at a friend’s cottage in Maine.

Alison gets a call from Jonathan, whose wife has left him. They plant a trip to Bermuda. Jessica heads to Maine. Sam is convinced that Frank is the key to the case, as he was killed first by someone who hand delivered the list.

Tod Fischer, a hitman, gets a call from Linda about his next target: Jessica, who has fled to Maine. Ethan’s friend Caroline tells him there was a third murder.

Victim #4: Jessica (and our first viable clue)

Jessica calls Arthur’s father and asks him about a man named Gary Winslow, her father. Tod the hitman finds Jessica.  Jessica calls her father who alludes to something bad he and Arthur’s father did. The hitman shoots Jessica.

Jack goes to Margaret’s house for dinner. Aaron decides to follow Jessica’s lead: the connection between her father and Arthur’s. Aaron also find out that Jay Coates has been located in Georgia. He also got the list and threw it out. But Georgia Jay was lying and is in a bit of a pickle when the FBI shows up to discuss the list with him.

Alison is in Bermuda with Jonathan.

Hmmm maybe Ethan’s mom also knows something…

Ethan asks his mom if anyone would want to get revenge on her and she hesitates a bit. Caroline’s mom tells her about a disturbing recurring dream where she and a group of kids ties up a girl and makes her walk the plank.

Victim #5: Jay

Jay the actor contemplates another murder. He goes out and gets murdered, hit with a steel bar. Jay, the tech guy, is in custody being questioned about receiving the letter which he now says he didn’t receive.

Sam is on the case!

Sam flies to Florida, still reading And Then There Were None. He needs to figure out the connection of the people in the list. He’s interested in Jack, the oldest list member, and Frank, who was killed in a more gruesome manner. Sam visits Frank’s sister who tells him that years back, a girl drowned very near where Frank was murdered.

Ethan and Caroline decide to meet at some remote cabins in Illinois.

Jack calls the FBI saying he does remember a connection to Frank. He and his family stayed at the Windward Resort in 1956. Jack doesn’t mention what happened to his sister there.

Victims #6 and 7

Ethan and Caroline are killed by poisoned wine. Only Jack and Alison are left.

Sam finds the story of the drowning victim. Faye Grant was ten, staying at the resort with her mother and brother.

What is the Ending of Nine Lives?

Jonathan, Alison’s married lover, is actually Jack, from the list. Jack tells Alison a story of how his sister drowned, and his real name.

Some backstory: Jack made his list, comprised of the children of the group of kids he holds responsible for the death of his sister. Then he goes to find Alison. (For some reason, he embarked on a year long relationship with Alison before eventually killing her. Thanks, Susan, in the comments, for straightening me out on the Alison issue!)

Back to the ending: Jack flies back to Hartford and kills his neighbor Margaret’s obnoxious husband. Then he drives to the Windward Resort, takes pills, and lets himself drown at the jetty just like his sister did.

What Was the Killer’s Motive in Nine Lives?

In And Then There Were None, the killer leaves a note explaining his crimes.

Sam, who’d just re-read the book, searches the resort library and finds a note in a copy of Peter Pan. 

Jack’s note explains that when he was a child in the 1950s, he was part of a group of kids who called themselves the Pirate Society while on vacation in Maine. They tied Jack’s sister Faye up and puts her in a sea cave. If she could escape before the tide comes in, they would let her join their group.

But poor Faye dies and decades later, her brother Jack decides to take revenge on the group. He kills Frank in a painful manner and on the site of Faye’s drowning, as Frank was in the group. The other victims were children of the original Pirate Society.

Jessica actually survives the shooting and recovers.

Spoiler Discussion for Nine Lives

My questions:

Why did Jack even make the list? He was also member of the Pirate Society. He knew where his sister was when his mother asked him and might have had a chance to save her but didn’t say anything.

If ANYONE should feel guilty about what happened to Faye, I think it was Jack.

He was quietly guilty all these years and then it was his own daughter’s death that suddenly made him want to seek revenge on the relatives of the people he holds responsible for his sister’s death?

Still, why wait so long? And why didn’t he think that losing his own daughter so tragically was some kind of karma for the terrible thing he did? I don’t know, his motive didn’t really hold together for me. Wait, there’s more…

Why didn’t he get also revenge on the drunk driver responsible for his daughter’s murder?

That would have made a lot more sense.

Why does he put Alison on the list? ANSWERED!

His explanation of that also didn’t make sense to me. She worked at the same restaurant as his daughter and he just randomly decides to kill her, but wants to get to know her first? Ooohhhkay. (EDITED: Thanks to Susan, who in comments pointed out that Alison is on the list because her father, Daniel, is one of the people Jack holds responsible for his sister’s death.)

I am also confused by the two Jay Coates. ANSWERED!

Did Jack kill the wrong Jay Coates on purpose because he decided that that guy was a psycho? Why were the police questioning the other Jay? Did they think he was the killer?

Thanks to Lisa who, in comments, pointed out that Jack did kill the right Jay (Hollywood Psycho Jay) and that IT Georgia Jay was lying about the note and being questioned for lying to the FBI. It made more sense to me that Jack found the wrong Jay and killed him anyway, but that is not what happens!

Why have Jessica survive? I have nothing against her, but … why? She’s a Final Girl now.

Typos in the book

Sharp-eyed readers in my comments (thanks!) noticed several editing mistakes with character names.

First, Aaron Berlin (on page 11) ends up with the name Aaron Levin by the end of the book (page 318).

In the comments, JC Burcham also points out that one minute Jonathan is having drinks with Alison. Then the next minute, he’s with Caroline? Then, on the next page, he’s back to Alison.

Those are my questions. If you can answer them, or have a theory or questions of your own, PLEASE leave a comment and respond to comment replies so you’ll know when someone responded!

Looking for other books about a group of people who get murdered one by one?

Check out my review of One by One by Ruth Ware and my Spoiler Discussion of One by One!