Greenwich Park

Greenwich Park is a 2021 thriller novel by Katherine Faulkner. A pregnant woman named Helen makes a mysterious new friend, Rachel, at a prenatal class. Although Rachel seems a bit irresponsible, Helen is in for a surprise when she learns that Rachel is far from the most dangerous person in her seemingly idyllic life. The novel explores the illusion of safety, the complexity of identity, and the meaning of parenthood.

This guide refers to the paperback edition published by Gallery Books in 2022.

Content Warning: The source text depicts domestic violence, pregnancy loss, rape, and death by suicide, which this guide discusses.

Plot Summary

The novel unfolds through alternating narrators, including the protagonist, Helen, who is pregnant after experiencing four miscarriages. Helen attends a prenatal class in her upscale London neighborhood of Greenwich Park and meets a new friend, Rachel, who drinks, smokes, is not with her child’s father, and seems somewhat irresponsible. However, Helen is grateful for the company since her husband Daniel, brother Rory, and pregnant sister-in-law Serena bailed on the classes. Helen takes early maternity leave due to high blood pressure, and so does Rachel, so the two spend lots of time together while builders remodel Helen’s house and Daniel is overworked at the architecture firm he runs with Rory. Katie, who is Helen’s friend and her younger brother Charlie’s on-and-off girlfriend, is a journalist writing about a rape case that bears striking resemblance to one that happened when Helen, Daniel, Rory, and Serena were at Cambridge.

Helen discovers a note in Rory’s house that suggests he’s cheating on Serena, but Helen keeps this to herself because she doesn’t want Serena to leave Rory. Rachel seems to appear everywhere Helen goes and asks too many questions about Rory and Serena. Helen receives repeated calls about a remortgage, which she assumes are spam. Rachel appears on Helen’s doorstep with a bruised neck, having been abused, and starts staying with Helen and Daniel, to Daniel’s dismay. Helen finds Daniel’s laptop in Rachel’s suitcase, along with a note matching the one from Rory’s house. Helen suspects that Rory is having an affair with Rachel, but tells no one.

Helen and Daniel host a party with a bonfire. Since the builders recently poured cement in their cellar, Helen forbids anyone from entering it, but several people disobey her. During the party, in Rachel’s room, Helen discovers stacks of cash as well as her own passport with the face cut out. She confronts Rachel and tells her to leave. Helen feels sick and experiences blurred vision and memory lapses, so she goes to bed. In the morning, Rachel texts to say she’s gone to stay with her mother. However, police soon visit Helen because Rachel’s family reported her missing. Soon, the missing person investigation becomes a murder investigation. Helen is terribly worried, but Daniel is not.

Katie visits Rachel’s former roommate, Jane, and learns that Rachel worked at a club with Charlie and knew him before she met Helen. Helen’s card starts getting declined even though she should have plenty of money. Rachel’s dad, John, visits Helen and reveals that Rachel’s mom is dead, so someone else sent the text to Helen. John also suggests that Rachel wasn’t really pregnant. Rory is arrested as a murder suspect because police discover that Rachel was extorting him for having an affair with his secretary, Lisa; they also found Rachel’s blood on his coat and determined the text was sent from near his house.

Katie visits Rachel’s father and learns that Rachel was the survivor in the boathouse rape at Cambridge 10 years prior. Rachel was angry because there were two witnesses who did nothing to interfere and then lied to the police about seeing anything. Charlie admits that he was sleeping with Rachel while he and Katie were on a break but denies knowing anything about her disappearance. Helen discovers that Daniel fired the builders and never paid them. She finds a bloody mark in the cellar as if someone hit their head, so she alerts Daniel, then goes into labor. Daniel comes home and knocks Helen out with a vase. Katie shows up to help, and Daniel tries to kill her until a detective Katie knows, DCI Carter, appears and saves her.

Daniel is imprisoned for Rachel’s murder, although he actually co-committed it with Serena, with whom he’d been having an affair since college. They were having sex in the boathouse and witnessed Rachel’s rape but lied about it so that they wouldn’t get caught for the affair. Daniel and Serena were planning to steal money and leave their spouses, hence the remortgage calls, missing funds, and not paying the builders. Daniel thinks he’ll be with Serena again when he gets out of prison, but Serena moves away with her baby, Sienna, planning to find a new, rich husband. However, the police catch up to her on the final page.

Serena reveals that she had drugged Helen to affect her memory, which impacts the growth of Helen’s baby. The doctors save Helen’s baby, Leo, and she moves in with Katie. Rory moves away with Lisa after it is revealed that Rachel was actually extorting Daniel, not Rory. Rory knows the real story but doesn’t say anything, because he’s just glad not to be in prison.