59 pages • 1 hour read
The Perfect Marriage
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Prologue-Chapter 11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
The Prologue opens with the words, “Did he love her?” and concludes with, “But the question isn’t whether or not he loved her. The question is… did he kill her?” (1). Although it is not yet revealed who the unnamed “he” and “her” referenced are, it is Adam Morgan and his mistress, Kelly Summers/Jenna Way.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
The book opens with Sarah Morgan’s first-person point of view. The opening lines come from Adam, saying, “Not again,” followed by Sarah’s reflection on his words: “The disappointment in his voice fills the room and hangs there like a light fog, clouding us from one another” (3). Sarah has just told Adam that she has to work and cannot join him at their lake house to celebrate their 10th marriage anniversary as planned. He notes that Sarah, a successful criminal defense attorney, is always working; Sarah jokes that someone has to pay the bills.
Adam, an unsuccessful author, tells Sarah he will go to the lake house alone to get some writing done. In truth, he will meet his mistress there, Kelly Summers (previously known as Jenna Way). The chapter ends with Sarah telling Adam she loves him, and Adam replying, “Love you more” (8). Unbeknownst to Adam, Sarah rightfully suspects that Adam will meet his mistress at the lake house that evening.
Sarah has concocted an elaborate plot to murder Kelly/Jenna that night and pin it on Adam. Sarah has concocted this plot with the help of Nicholas Robert Miller, who will be known for much of the book simply as “Bob,” another lawyer at Sarah’s law firm. Bob is the brother of Greg Miller—the deceased husband of Jenna Way. Greg was murdered and Jenna was the primary suspect, but she was acquitted. After the incident, Jenna changed her name to Kelly Summers and moved to escape scrutiny. Bob tracked Kelly/Jenna down, discovered she was having an affair with Adam, and told Sarah about it. Sarah then proposed the murder plot to Bob. Bob agreed to avenge his brother Greg’s death (he assumes Kelly/Jenna was the killer, although the book never confirms this). The fact that Sarah is the murderer and that she and Bob are connected is not revealed until the book’s final chapter.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam is at the house on Lake Manassas, Virginia, about an hour outside of Washington, D.C., where he and Sarah live together. He is trying to write, without success. It was supposed to be a second home for Adam and Sarah, but he is usually there alone. Adam describes Sarah as a “powerhouse” and their marriage as “a one-woman show where I just happen to be cast as an extra” (11). Sarah and Adam met in college 15 years ago. She wanted to be a successful lawyer, and he wanted to be a successful author. Only Sarah has achieved her ambitions.
Adam’s ruminations about his shaky marriage are interrupted by Kelly/Jenna’s arrival. She has come from her job at a local café and tells Adam, “Babe, I brought leftover baked goods from the café” (15). They have passionate sex. While lying in bed together afterward, Kelly/Jenna asks Adam if he will ever leave Sarah. Adam asks Kelly/Jenna if she will ever leave her husband, a local cop named Scott Summers. Kelly/Jenna replies, “It’s not the same,” and starts crying (18). Adam gets them two glasses of scotch, comforts her, and they make love again.
Later the reader will learn that Kelly/Jenna has told Adam that her husband, Scott, is abusive. She is afraid to leave him, hence her statement, “It’s not the same.” The book will never fully clarify whether Scott really is abusive or not. On one hand, it would make sense that Kelly/Jenna would be afraid to report him or leave him, since he is a member of the local police. On the other hand, Kelly/Jenna may have murdered her previous husband, Greg, and is painted as an unreliable narrator.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
Sarah is busy at her law firm, Williamson & Morgan in Washington, D.C., with her assistant, Anne. Sarah and Anne complain about another lawyer at the firm, “Mr. Miller,” whom Anne also assists. Sarah notes that she and Anne are different but also the same in that they are “[t]wo women trying to make it in a man’s world. We work twice as hard as our male counterparts to make it just an inch ahead of them” (21). Sarah invites Anne out for a drink after work.
Although it is not revealed yet, “Mr. Miller” is Nicholas Robert Miller or “Bob,” the brother of the deceased Greg Miller—Kelly/Jenna’s murdered ex-husband. It will also be revealed later that Sarah has purposefully planned to have drinks with Anne tonight. Anne will be Sarah’s alibi in Kelly/Jenna’s murder. In fact, Sarah will later sneak off after drinks to murder Kelly/Jenna at the lake house, while Kelly/Jenna is sleeping in bed next to Adam. Sarah has made this possible by previously lacing the scotch Adam keeps at the lake house with Rohypnol.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam wakes up at the lake house to the noise of a car door slamming. It is 12:15 a.m., and he panics, realizing he should have been back home in D.C. hours ago. Adam tries to wake Kelly/Jenna, who seems to be sleeping soundly; in the dark, he does not realize that she is dead. He looks at her phone and sees a text from a person named Jesse that says “I’m sorry” (24). There are also angry text messages from Kelly/Jenna’s husband, Scott, concluding with, “Too late. You’re a fucking memory now” (25). Adam writes Kelly/Jenna a note, telling her he loves her and asking her to leave the lake house before the cleaning woman arrives the next day. He then drives to D.C., where he finds Sarah in bed. She tells him, “Let’s have a baby” (28), which thrills him. They have sex and fall asleep again together.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
The next day at work, Anne tells Sarah that Bob wants to see her. Sarah tells Bob to stop using Anne as his personal assistant. Sarah and Bob appear not to get along. When Sarah returns to her office, she finds that Adam has sent her flowers and a loving note. Sarah is joined in her office by Anne and a lawyer friend of hers, Matthew. Sarah tells Anne and Matthew that she and Adam are going to try for a baby. Anne is happy; Matthew is not. According to Matthew, “[Adam’s] career has flatlined. So, a kid will make him feel like his life has meaning” (35-36).
Chapter 6 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam wakes up alone, feeling optimistic. He is happy Sarah has finally agreed to have a child, as it is something he has wanted for a long time. He thinks regretfully of Kelly/Jenna and the previous night: “I should have ended it last night” (37).
Two police officers arrive at the house looking for Adam, Sheriff Ryan Stevens and Deputy Marcus Hudson. They arrest Adam for the murder of Kelly/Jenna. The police take Adam in for questioning, where they tell him, “Kelly Summers was stabbed to death in your bed” (41). Adam immediately suspects that Kelly/Jenna’s husband, Scott, is the murderer—Kelly/Jenna told Adam that Scott was abusive, and Adam saw the angry, threatening texts from Scott on Kelly/Jenna’s phone the previous night.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
While Adam is being taken into custody by the police, Sarah is in court, in the middle of a trial, defending a senator in a rape case.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam calls Sarah’s phone from jail. Since she is in the middle of a trial, she does not pick up. Adam decides not to leave her a message: “I can’t tell her I cheated on her and I’m now a suspect for my mistress’ murder over voicemail” (45). Instead, he calls his mother, Eleanor Morgan.
Chapter 9 Summary
Sarah won her case for the senator and is celebrating with Anne and Matthew. Sarah’s celebrations are interrupted by a phone call from Eleanor, who tells her that Adam is in custody at the Prince William County Sherriff’s Station. Eleanor does not know why, and Sarah seems to not know why either. She thinks, “In my gut, I know it’s not okay. Things may never be the same again” (49).
At the sheriff’s station, Sheriff Stevens asks Sarah whether Adam was home the previous night. She thinks carefully and replies that he came home around 2:00 a.m. The Sheriff asks Sarah if she knows Kelly Summers. Sarah replies no and thinks to herself, “Maybe she’s our cleaning lady? No that’s not her name” (52). Sheriff Stevens shows Sarah photos of the crime scene—Kelly/Jenna, dead in the bed at Sarah and Adam’s lake house—and reveals that Adam is a suspect. Sarah reacts with shock: She gasps, vomits, and cries. Sheriff Stevens asks if they should call a lawyer for Adam. Sarah replies, “I’m his lawyer” (54).
Chapter 10 Summary: “Adam Morgan”
Adam is still in the interrogation room, alone, panicking. He picks up a chair and throws it against the one-way mirror, crying and shouting, “Get me my fucking lawyer” (56).
Chapter 11 Summary: “Sarah Morgan”
Unbeknownst to Adam, Sarah is on the other side of the one-way mirror, watching him. She thinks to herself, “I’m no longer here as Adam’s wife. I’m here as his lawyer. I’m Sarah Morgan, top criminal defense attorney” (57). Watching Adam’s erratic behavior, she thinks to herself, “I’ve never seen him do more than raise his voice. I’ve never seen him this enraged. Maybe he could be violent” (59).
Sheriff Stevens summarizes the facts of the case for Sarah: Kelly/Jenna was found stabbed 37 times in Adam’s bed at the lake house; her body was discovered by the cleaning lady. There was semen in her body, indicating sexual activity, and skin under her fingernails—which could indicate an attempt to fight someone off, or rough sex. The Sheriff believes there were drugs in Kelly/Jenna’s system, and a toxicology report is being done. Sarah takes notes on all the facts, sensing all the while that Sheriff Stevens feels sorry for her.
Prologue, Chapters 1-11 Analysis
The Prologue presents the narrative’s primary question immediately: “But the question isn’t whether or not he loved her. The question is… did he kill her?” (1). While the book’s central mystery is revealed, the answer will not be confirmed until the book’s final pages, when Sarah will reveal that she, and not Adam, killed Kelly/Jenna. The murder is an act of revenge after Sarah discovered that Adam and Kelly/Jenna were having an affair.
The book opens, and will close, with Sarah’s point of view, attesting to her role as the more powerful figure in her marital dynamic with Adam. Sarah’s dominance over Adam is repeatedly emphasized in the book’s opening chapters: In the first chapter, Sarah jokes about how she is the one who pays the bills in the marriage. In the second chapter, Adam himself describes Sarah as a “powerhouse” and their marriage as “a one-woman show where [he] just happen[s] to be cast as an extra” (11). It is implied that Adam may feel emasculated in the marriage, especially since his own career is failing in comparison to Sarah’s. The fact that Adam has been waiting for Sarah to start a family also inverts old-fashioned gender stereotypes, where women are generally seen as more likely to desire a family.
Through the stark contrast between Adam and Sarah, the book immediately starts to question traditional Power Dynamics and Gender Politics in a marriage. In the past, men would usually be the more dominant figure as the primary breadwinner. Instead, Sarah and Adam have inverted this dynamic, as Sarah is richer, more successful, and more aggressively driven in her goals than Adam is. Theoretically, this should be empowering. However, Sarah’s character proves to be so ruthlessly power-hungry and independent that whether or not she is an aspirational figure remains ambiguous. It will later be suggested by Eleanor that Sarah’s ambitions have placed strains on the marriage that helped to facilitate Adam’s affair, implying that Sarah may struggle with the more emotional, interpersonal aspects of her life.
Sarah’s character is already painted in an unsavory light in these early chapters—not because she pursues a career or is successful, but because she is depicted as calculating and ruthless. For example, in Chapter 7, Sarah is shown in court, defending a senator in a rape case. While this detail does not advance the plot, it does provide some brief insight into Sarah’s characterization: Her client is someone powerful and rich (a senator), which speaks to Sarah’s elite clientele, and her defense of the senator on a charge of rape suggests that Sarah is not necessarily invested in championing a female-centric agenda, even in her legal career. Instead, she aligns herself with masculinity, power, and hierarchical social structures, all of which is reflective of her own values and her self-image as someone capable of pursuing traditional “masculine” achievements.
Kelly/Jenna forms an important contrast to Sarah. While Sarah is a high-powered lawyer, Kelly/Jenna is a waitress, which suggests that her income possibly either matches or does not much surpass Adam’s. Kelly/Jenna is immediately shown as being the type of woman who takes care of a man. She satisfies not only Adam’s sexual needs but also other needs, like food. The book introduces Kelly/Jenna’s character with the words, “Babe, I brought leftover baked goods from the café” (15). This sort of caring action suggests that Kelly/Jenna wishes to present herself as a feminine, nurturing figure more aligned with traditional gender expectations. While Sarah does not appear to be overly domestic or subservient in her habits, Kelly/Jenna appears to be content with conforming to gender stereotypes.
However, while Kelly/Jenna and Sarah initially appear as opposites, the women will end up sharing more in common than is at first apparent. For example, both Sarah and Kelly/Jenna are unreliable narrators—and possible killers. Sarah will suppress the fact that she is the murderer until the book’s final chapters. Meanwhile, Kelly/Jenna will claim both of her ex-husbands, Greg and Scott, were abusive—claims that are thrown into doubt. It will also be heavily implied that Kelly/Jenna killed Greg. If this is true, both Sarah and Kelly/Jenna are capable of murdering not only a person but a person they presumably love or loved at some point, an intimate partner. Kelly/Jenna’s apparent conformity to traditional gender roles may therefore mask a ruthlessness similar to Sarah’s.
The book holds off on presenting the inciting event of the narrative, Kelly/Jenna’s murder. This is unusual for thrillers and murder mysteries, which often start with a dead body and then proceed from there. Instead, the narrative focuses on painting a picture of Adam and Sarah’s marriage, which is clearly not the “perfect” marriage alluded to in the book’s title. The lake house serves as a symbolic representation of the strains in their marriage: Adam notes that it was meant to help Sarah and Adam’s marriage in providing a private getaway; instead, Adam is mostly there alone. Adam also uses the lake house to meet Kelly/Jenna, and it becomes the scene of her murder. The lake house is thus an important symbol as well as setting, setting in motion the theme Fidelity Versus Deceit in depicting an intended marital getaway as the locale of an affair.
These chapters also start building Sarah’s identity as an unreliable narrator. Sarah at first seems surprised by Adam’s affair and Kelly/Jenna’s murder. When Sarah is called to the Sheriff’s station, she feigns innocence. Presented with the name Kelly Summers, Sarah thinks: “Maybe she’s our cleaning lady? No that’s not her name” (52). The narrative specifically frames this as an internal thought, as if Sarah is providing insight into her genuine, private reactions. Instead, Sarah is disguising her identity as the killer, even when purportedly sharing her side of the story. Sarah will only admit that she knows who Kelly/Jenna is and, in fact, killed her, at the novel’s end, creating a final plot twist. As an unreliable narrator bent on disguising the truth of the crime, Sarah embodies the novel’s thematic preoccupation with Fidelity Versus Deceit.
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