Did you read Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier and need a plot summary? Want to discuss the ending of Things We Do in the Dark? Need help with a character list or keeping all those murders and secrets and characters straight? Join my Spoiler Discussion for Things We Do in the Dark!

Spoiler Discussion for Things We Do in the Dark

by Jennifer Hillier

This Spoiler Discussion for Things We Do in the Dark features the following:

• Content Warning for Things We Do in the Dark
• Plot Summary for Things We Do in the Dark
• The Ending of Things We Do in the Dark Explained
• Character List for Things We Do in the Dark
• Spoiler Discussion for Things We Do in the Dark

Plot Summary for Things We Do in The Dark

The famous actor-comedian Jimmy Peralta is found dead in his Seattle home. His fifth wife, Paris, was found near his body, holding a straight razor.

The police arrest Paris for Jimmy’s murder. She calls Jimmy’s close friend Elsie, a lawyer.

Paris tells Elsie what happened: she’d been at a yoga convention in Vancouver and drove back late the night of the murder. When she got home, she noticed the security alarm wasn’t set. She went to Jimmy’s room and saw him lying in a bathtub of bloody water. She tried to get him out but slipped and hit her head. House later, she regained consciousness. The police were there and she was holding the straight razor that Jimmy liked to use to shave.

Elsie agrees to help Paris. She believes Paris’s story and says Jimmy had attempted suicide before.

Jimmy’s assistant Zoe is the one who found Jimmy and Paris that morning. She and called the police, hysterically screaming that Paris was a murderer.

The police seem skeptical that Paris can’t corroborate her story. She “accidentally” left her phone home while she went to the weekend yoga convention. In addition, Border Control can’t access photos of cars crossing the border from Canada that night.

Paris tells Elsie she was concerned about the pressure of this streaming special Jimmy agreed to do, having concerns for both his physical and mental health. Elsie tells Paris that the toxicology screen found drugs in Jimmy’s system.

Anyone else suspicious of Elsie or Zoe? They are on my suspect list!

Paris appears in court for a bail hearing. She and Elsie thought she had a prenup with Jimmy, but the prosecution announces that Jimmy recently changed his will and that Paris killed him for the money. Both Zoe and Elsie get $5 million.) 

Paris makes bail. She has to wear an ankle monitor and Elsie gets her a hotel room. The first thing she does is fire Zoe.

But Paris does have some secrets too!

Paris goes through Jimmy’s fan mail and finds a letter from Ruby Reyes, a woman in prison for killing Ruby’s lover, Charles Baxter, in the 1990s. Ruby had been trying to blackmail Paris. Now she is about to be released from prison.

A podcaster enters the mix!

Podcaster Drew Malcom angrily reacts to the news of Ruby’s release. He believes Ruby abused her daughter Joey, who was a friend of his until her tragic death in a house fire. Drew plans to research Ruby and Joey‘s case for his podcast, Things We Do in the Dark.

Drew meets with Joey’s social worker. She suggests Joey was in love with Drew and gives him Joey’s case file and her diaries.

Drew visits The Golden Cherry, a strip club where Joey worked in the late 90s under the stage name Ruby. (Yes, her stripper name was her mom’s name!) Drew recalls his bachelor party at the strip club in 1998. He ran into Joey at his party and argued with her right before she died in a house fire. He was the one who identified the body based on a butterfly tattoo on Joey’s leg.

In the present, Drew talks to Cherry, a dancer at the club who says that Joey had a stripper friend who went by Betty Savage. Cherry shows drew pictures of Joey and Betty Savage, who look very much alike. Betty was selling drugs at the club for her gang member boyfriend.

Hmmm… anyone else getting a body switch vibe?

Drew calls the constable who investigated the house fire and tries to get the case files. As he used to be an investigative reporter, Drew also visits a former gang member contact, Tony Tranh. He recognizes the photo of “Betty” Mae, the girlfriend of his brother Vinny who died years ago. Betty/Mae went missing in 1998, around the time Vinny died.

Drew learns that “Betty” is Mae Ocampo, who has a record for shoplifting and assault. He wonders if Mae killed Joey or if Vinny killed Mae for stealing his drugs.

Drew thinks that Paris, Betty and Mae are the same person

Drew goes to interview Ruby about the murder of her husband, Charles. He asks Ruby about her daughter, Joey. Ruby tells Drew she’s being paid to keep a secret and hints the secret is about Jimmy Peralta. Drew is watching TV and sees Paris Peralta and realizes that Paris is Mae.

Nope, Betty is Mae, and Paris is … Joey!

The constable who investigated the house fire calls Drew saying that Betty had a tattoo of a butterfly on her thigh and so did Joey. It’s the body switch!

Paris is not Betty… Paris is Joey! Ruby knows that Joey is pretending to be Paris, which is why she’s blackmailing her. Joey faked her own death and assumed a new identity, Paris.

Now that Jimmy is dead, Paris worries about her secret being exposed. Paris finally returns to her house. Zoe is there. She apologizes for calling Paris a murderer, and tells Paris that Jimmy had started to use drugs again because of the pressure for his streaming show.

Paris tells Zoe that Jimmy was having hand tremors and trouble with his memory and was worried he had dementia.

Paris recalls the circumstances that led to her faking her own death. On the night of the fire, Betty did not show up for work. Her boyfriend Vinny came looking for her. Paris was worried that Mae/Betty had stolen drugs or money from Vinny and that people often confused the two of them.

Elsie tells Paris that Zoe negotiated 20% of Jimmy’s streaming deal for herself. Paris gets another blackmail letter from Ruby asking for $10 million.

Paris’s new lawyer, Sonny, asks her why she allowed Jimmy to use a straight razor if he had a hand tremor. Since someone erased the data from her home alarm system and Zoe was in charge of that, Paris wonders if Zoe was setting Paris up. Sonny suggests blaming Zoe for the murder. 

However, Sonny also says that no one at the yoga convention remembered seeing Paris and that a hotel employee thought that Paris took a taxi to the airport the morning of the murder.

Paris didn’t really go to the yoga convention.

Yeah, no one accidentally leaves their phone at home during a trip. Nice try, Paris.

Zoe released a copy of Paris and Jimmy’s wedding photo as part of the press release for his streaming deal. Paris worried that, based on the photo, someone would recognize her as Joey.

So the yoga convention was actually cover for Paris stealing Joey‘s ashes from her family home. (Of course, these were actually Betty’s ashes, but I guess she thinks they could be DNA tested.) She used to fake ID to fly from Vancouver to Toronto snuck into the house to find the urn of ashes, but couldn’t locate them.

What really happened in the house fire?

On the night of the fire, Joey learned about Drew’s engagement, which upset her. She also found that someone ransacked her apartment, probably Vinny looking for Mae and/or his drugs.

Joey found a bunch of cash and cocaine hidden in her apartment which must have been what the intruder was looking for. Sadly, she also found Mae injured and dying, so Joey set the fire to cover up the situation.

Joey took the drugs and the cash, put her own ruby and diamond necklace on Mae’s body, and set the house on fire. She asked Chaz, the strip club bouncer, to help her trade the cocaine for fake ID, and officially became Paris. 

Paris recalls lying in her mother Ruby’s trial. She did not testify to being sexually abused by Charles (which was her mother’s justification for his murder) and helped ensure that her mom got convicted.

The Ending of Things We Do in the Dark Explained

Paris learns that the DA has withdrawn the murder charge against her. The Border Control photos showed up corroborating her story and the coroner can’t be sure Jimmy’s death was homicide.

Paris tells Drew why she had to set the fire and fake her death. Drew points out that Charles, Mae, and Jimmy all were killed with blades. Paris says that was just a coincidence.

Paris realizes that one of Jimmy’s straight razors was missing in the crime scene photo and has now mysteriously reappeared. The missing razor is one that Elsie gave to Jimmy.

Zoe and Paris accuse Elsie of Jimmy’s murder. Paris thinks Elsie killed Jimmy with the razor that she gave him, and then snuck the razor back into the house after the case against Paris was dropped.

Elsie says she was always in love with Jimmy and he never wanted to be with her. She confesses to Jimmy’s murder, but says it was an accident. Elsie killed him in a struggle, then staged the bathtub “suicide” scene and erased the security system. She didn’t intend for Paris to be charged with murder.

Ruby is still blackmailing Paris for $10 million. Paris decides to meet her mother and pay her off.

Why is Ruby blackmailing Paris/Joey?Joey is actually the one who killed Charles. 

Ruby is still angry that she got blamed and sent to prison and that Joey didn’t testify that Charles was an abuser, which might have gotten Ruby off.

Ruby was jealous that Charles was “paying attention” to Joey. (Um, no, it was abuse.) They argued and Ruby stabbed him but Paris was the one who actually killed him stomped on his neck with his daughter Lexi’s ice skates.

Paris trades the blackmail money with Ruby for the urn of ashes. But then Ruby pushes Paris into a pond. Paris can’t swim and drops the ashes. Drew comes and pulls her out of the water. He has filmed the entire thing. Ruby’s assault on Paris violates her parole and she gets sent back into prison. Drew and Paris (presumably) live happily ever after.

Character List for Things We Do in The Dark

Paris Peralta: Filipina, yoga teacher, and fifth wife of actor comedian Jimmy. Her real identity is Joey Reyes, who in the 90s worked as a stripper called Ruby.

Jimmy Peralta: – former actor-comedian. He had just signed a deal with a streaming service for a comedy special. He came to fame in the 1990s and his show Prince of Poughkeepsie was cancelled in the early 2000s.

Zoe Moffatt: Jimmy’s ambitious assistant 

Henry Chu: the manager at Paris’ yoga studio

Elsie Dixon: a lawyer and Jimmys close friend use fire which killed Joey (actually Mae)

Nico Salazar: prosecutor

Ruby Reyes: known by the press as the Ice Queen who, twenty-five years ago, stabbed her lover Charles and stomped on his neck with a pair of ice skates. Also Filipina.

Joey Reyes: Ruby’s daughter, now called Paris

Drew Malcolm: former journalist turned podcaster. His podcast is Things We Do in the Dark

Charles Baxter: Ruby’s lover, a child molester whom she was convicted of murdering 

Deborah Jackson: Joey’s social worker after her mother was sent to prison.

Suzanne Baxter : wife of Charles wife

Lexi Baxter: daughter of Charles

Simone: Drew Malcolm’s former girlfriend

Kirsten – Drew’s other former girlfriend

Hannah McKinley – Toronto police constable who investigated the fire that killed Joey

Tony Tranh: Vietnamese gang member in the 90s.

Mae Ocampo/Betty Savage: dancer at the Golden Cherry in the 90s. Went missing in the 1990s, but was actually killed in the house fire. Joey used Mae’s body to fake her own death.

Vinny Tranh: Tony’s brother, gang member, boyfriend of Mae/Betty; murdered in the 90s.

Sonny: Paris’s new lawyer 

Spoiler Discussion for Things We Do in the Dark

Whew. That was a RIDE!! There were people who were actually other people. People with secret identities AND stripper names. Murders and accidental murders. Body swaps and fake trips. Stolen murder weapons and weird murder weapons.

Could you keep it all straight? My head is still spinning!

What did you think of this one? I think that Little Secrets is still my favorite Jennifer Hillier book, but Things We Do in the Dark was a fun read.

I’m glad it ended on a happy note and I hope that Drew and Joey have a great life and stay out of trouble!