1st to Die

The victims in the Honeymoon Murders are missing their wedding rings. Wedding rings symbolize the unending circle of love and commitment that should be present in a marriage. By taking the rings, the murderer wants to make clear their cynical views of marriage—especially the idealization of marriage inherent to newlyweds still riding the high of the wedding itself. However, by taking the rings, the murderer allows Detective Lindsay Boxer to connect the San Francisco and Cincinnati murders to one another.

At the end of the novel, as Chessy Jenks holds her husband Nicholas at gunpoint, she demands that he swallow the rings she’s collected from her victims. She wants him to physically suffer at least a little to make up for the ways he’s tormented her physically and psychologically. Swallowing the rings is also a concrete representation of the ways Nicholas disregarded his wedding vows by cheating on her and abusing her. Her possession of the rings identifies Chessy as the murderer, though later Nicholas claims that he masterminded the crimes. 

When Chessy dresses up as Nicholas to commit the murders, she calls herself Phillip Campbell, picking this name from Nicholas’s first novel, Always a Bridesmaid.