Did you read this March 2022 vigilante thriller by Lisa Scottoline and have questions about the ending? Need a plot summary? Want to talk about what you liked and what confused you? Welcome to my Spoiler Discussion for What Happened to the Bennetts!
Welcome to my Spoiler Discussion for What Happened to the Bennetts.
If you need a plot summary, that’s below.
After that is a Spoiler Discussion for What Happened to the Bennetts
Plot Summary for What Happened to the Bennetts
The Bennett family (Jason, his wife Lucinda, and their children Allison and Ethan) notice they are being tailgated while driving home one night.
Two men force them off the road and say they want the Bennetts’ new Mercedes.
The Bennetts’ dog lunges at the attackers, who fire at him. A bullet hits Allison, and then one of their assailants kills the other and flees.
An ambulance rushes Allison to the hospital, but tragically, she can’t be saved.
The FBI approaches Jason and Lucinda, saying that the man named John Milo is the one who shot Allison, and that his accomplice (the man Milo killed) was George Veria, Jr., known as Junior.
The two men were members of GVO, a crime organization run by Junior’s father, George Veria, Sr.
The FBI say the two committed a crime before they encountered the Bennetts and needed a getaway car.
They also explain that Milo is blaming Junior’s death on Jason, and that the Bennetts need to go into witness protection immediately.
The Bennetts Enter the WITSEC Program
The Bennetts object, but eventually agree to let two FBI agents, Dom and Wiki, take them to a safe house. They have to go completely off the grid: no contact with family and friends and they can’t even attend Allison’s funeral.
Jason starts researching GVO and finds out that a local lawyer, Paul Hart, worked for GVO and helped keep them, including Milo, out of jail.
Public Theories About What Happened to the Bennetts
Things get worse when arsonists target the Bennetts’ home and businesses. Their friends and family are baffled by their disappearance and Bryan Krieger, a true crime blogger, posts a theory that Jason killed his entire family.
One of Lucinda’s friends is trying to find her. When Bryan, the true crime blogger, interviews her, she reveals that Lucinda had an affair, which she thinks is the motive for Jason murdering him and their family.
This shocks Jason, but he is even more stunned when Lucinda tells him the name of the man she cheated with: Paul Hart. She also reveals that Paul specifically threatened Jason, who wonders if Paul sent Milo to kill him.
Jason Learns the FBI Isn’t Being Honest
Then Jason learns that Milo, his daughter’s killer, is not hiding out in Mexico, as the FBI told them, but is an informant for the FBI.
Feeling lied to and betrayed, Jason and Lucinda stage a fight and Jason escapes witness protection.
Jason attends Junior’s funeral, where he another FBI agent warns him that he is in danger. Jason escapes and able to find George Senior’s home address, and sees that Paul Hart’s car there.
He collects florists’ cards from Junior’s funeral home as a way to piece together the members and associates of GVO.
Jason decides to wait outside Hart’s office, theorizing that Milo will go there to meet with Hart, his lawyer. Once he has proof that Milo is an informant, he plans to tell George Senior that Milo has flipped on him. But as he watches, a hit and run driver kills Hart. Jason follows the car that hit Hart.
Bryan Krieger has a new post about a witness who saw Jason in front of Hart’s office.
Jason decides Milo must have killed Hart to protect his secret about being an FBI informant.
Through the florist’s cards from Junior’s funeral, he tracks down Paul’s girlfriend, Contessa. But she is dead.
By comparing a decal on the hit and run car to the floral cards, he figures out the nickname of the driver of the car that hit Phil. By accessing court records (he’s a court reporter) he figures out the man’s identity.
He blackmails Phil, the BMW driver, to set up a meeting with George Sr, but Milo shows up instead. Jason tells Phil that Milo is an FBI snitch, and the group starts shooting. Jason flees, with Milo in pursuit, but gets away.
The next morning Jason goes to a diner where all the locals are talking about the shooting. He’s able to get the make and model of Milo’s car. He also learns that Bryan Krieger, the crime blogger, was also at the meeting and that he and Phil were both shot.
Jason Befriends George Sr.
Finally, Jason gets his meeting with Big George, who beats him up for killing George Jr. but finally starts to believe him. Then Jason tells George that Milo wants to take control of GVO. George says he has terminal cancer.
Jason thinks that Paul Hart must have sent Milo to stage the carjacking and kill him, but that things went wrong. George reveals that Senator Ricks, a close friend of Hart’s, was at Gitmo, where Jason also worked as a court reporter. He also says it was Milo’s idea to burn down Jason’s office.
Jason goes online to look for his Gitmo files, but they are all gone. He remembers that Senator Ricks also worked at a military interrogator at Gitmo. Jason finds a photo that proves that Ricks lied about being involved in an interrogation that resulted in a prisoner’s death.
Jason returns to his family’s safe house to hear from Wiki that Milo kidnapped Dom, Lucinda and Ethan, and that Milo wants to make a deal.
As they speed to the meeting place, Jason realizes Wiki is lying and causes the car they are traveling in to go off the road and into a lake.
Jason wracks his brain to think of where Dom might have taken his family for safekeeping. He remembers Dom telling him about an uncle in Philly, and he heads there. Jason locates Dom, Lucinda and Ethan.
Dom and Jason decide they have to use Jason as bait to lure Milo. Milo arrives, and George also arrives, presumably to get Milo. George kills Milo, but in the process is fatally shot and dies.
The US Attorney who briefs Jason wants to go with the botched carjacking story while they investigate Hart and Senator Ricks.
Finally, Jason is able to testify that Ricks lied about his actions at Gitmo. Lucinda and Jason decide to stay together. The Bennetts are able to have a private funeral and public memorial service for Allison.
Spoiler Discussion for What Happened to the Bennetts
Curious to see what you think!
I had very mixed feelings about this one. It was trying to be a lot: a grief book, a story of a marriage gone stale, a vigilante justice book, and a thriller.
What I did like: good plotting that kept me turning the pages. I also thought the parts about Allison’s death were truly moving. Scottoline also brought some of her trademark humor, with the truck drivers and the dogs.
But pulling off an “everyman becomes a vigilante” plot isn’t easy and I felt that What Happened to the Bennetts had a lot of parts that strained credulity.
I thought the FBI was lying to Jason that George Sr. thought Jason killed his son, because it was just so unbelievable. A regular soccer dad probably doesn’t carry a gun home from watching his kids play sports.
And if he were able to disarm two armed robbers and kill one, he’s not really an average guy, but probably a guy with some military or police training.
Why did Paul and Milo need to kill Jason if they were able to erase his Gitmo files so easily? Problem solved. Also when/how did he do that? I must have missed it.
I also found the Paul/Lucinda affair odd. The Bennetts are portrayed as this happy family but oh yeah, Lucinda just happened to sleep with this random guy.
I feel like the cracks in their marriage needed to be better set up. Later on, Lucinda tries to explain about her sister’s death and how that drove her to an affair, but I wasn’t really buying it.
In a related observation, I came to really dislike Jason myself. He was SO perfect. That whole smug speech about how all the lawyers lie and he, the court reporter is the only one who tells the truth was a bit much.
So I guess Jason’s job is to write down all the lies in an accurate form? I am actually interested in learning more about court reporting but to me he came off as insufferable at times.
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I was really disappointed in this book. Lost interest first 5 chapters. I did finish it but skimmed through it fast. Was not a chick book by no means. Scott line usually doesn’t disappoint me, but this one did.
Hi Wanda! Hope my recap helped you decide whether to keep going. I did really like aspects of this but others not so much. Do you have a favorite book of hers?
How did Jason discover Milo was an informant???
Hi Buddy – Didn’t explain in the post because it’s rather convoluted. Because he’s a court reporter, Jason can read lips and he lip-reads Agent Reilly, one of his FBI surveillance team, talking to another FBI agent about the fact that Reilly doesn’t trust Milo, but that if Milo can deliver Big George to the FBI, then it’s worth it for the FBI to work with him.
Thanks for your Spoiler Discussion. I was listening to “What Happened To The Bennetts” on audio disc and was 2/3 through the book and thinking I really didn’t like the writing or the preposterous plotting. But I wanted to find out how things turned out without having to listen to 3.5 more hours. Your summary saved me. Thank you. (And I agree with your criticisms of the book.)
One thing left hanging was how it was possible for the FBI to basically imprison the victims of a crime the way they did to the Bennetts. A couple of chapters into the book I began thinking: “This is ridiculous. Instead of going into hiding, why doesn’t Jason immediately go to a good reporter (or lawyer) and then get interviewed on TV where he can tell the public (and George Sr.) exactly what happened that night.”
Happy to help!
I agree that part took some suspension of disbelief! I thought the idea of a family vanishing like that was kind of interesting, but when you think too hard about it, it doesn’t make sense.
Here with this exact comment about not being able to finish. I sped up the audiobook to 1.75x and still was disinterest so I came here! I liked it at first…. it held my attention. But once he escaped the safe house, it lost its ability to keep my attention but I kept trying to push through.
I did not like this book. I also had to skim most of it. I don’t know what is different but there it is.
I don’t disagree. It was not my favorite of her books!
Have enjoyed author’s other books but not this one. Too many things unbelievable.
I’m a HUGE fan of hers too, way back to the 1990s but I agree with you.
I felt the same about most of the book as you did. Nice to know I wasn’t alone.
How did he get money when he escaped wit-sec? He had enough to get a car repainted???
Hi Dawn, Glad we agree. This was not her best work! And that is a very good question. Another plot hole I think.
Late to the party, but I hope I can still join the discussion. My big question is how did Jason realize Wiki was lying? He never explained.
Also, I’m a court reporter, and I pray I’m not as arrogant as Jason is. I’ve been reporting for 13 years, and although it’s easier to “hear” someone when I can see their mouth, I certainly can’t read lips. Maybe I’ll try it at my next deposition. And I certainly wouldn’t want to work for him. He takes a 30% commission?!?! That is way too high.
Welcome Debbie and so happy to have an expert on Jason and his job.
Yeah, he was a bit full of himself. I need to check back at the book to answer your question, though I suspect you are probably right and that it isn’t explained.