Every Vow You Break: A Novel

Every Vow You Break (2021) is a psychological thriller by Peter Swanson, a New York Times bestselling author known for other suspense novels such as The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders. The novel follows Abigail Baskin, a bride-to-be whose pre-wedding indiscretion leads to a terrifying honeymoon on an isolated island where she uncovers a sinister conspiracy. The narrative draws heavily from the tradition of the Hitchcockian thriller and provides a critique of misogynistic ideologies associated with men’s rights activist groups. Major themes include The Unraveling of Performed Identities, The Weaponization of Trust as Psychological Manipulation, and The Corrupting Influence of Wealth and Male Entitlement.

This guide refers to the 2022 William Morrow paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, emotional and psychological abuse, physical abuse, cursing, infidelity, sexual content, gender discrimination, death by suicide, and death.

Plot Summary

Abigail Baskin, a publishing professional in New York City, is preparing to marry Bruce Lamb, a wealthy and attentive angel investor. As the wedding approaches, she reflects on her past, including losing her virginity to an actor named Zachary Mason, a long-term relationship with a poet named Ben Perez, and her parents’ marital and financial ruin in the wake of their failed theater. She met Bruce at a coffee shop, and he was immediately captivated, quickly offering to pay off her student loans and later proposing marriage. While Abigail appreciates Bruce’s stability, she feels a lingering uncertainty about their future.

During her bachelorette weekend at a California vineyard with her friends, Abigail meets a charismatic stranger at a firepit. Feeling a mix of pre-wedding anxiety and intoxication, she has a one-night stand with him. They use the aliases “Madeleine” and “Scottie,” a reference Abigail makes to the film Vertigo. The next morning, filled with guilt, she confides in her friend Zoe, who advises her not to make any rash decisions about the wedding.

Back in New York, Abigail’s anxiety intensifies when she believes she sees Scottie in her neighborhood. Later, she receives an email from him professing his love and urging her to cancel the wedding. She sends a firm reply stating the wedding is still on and tries to put the incident behind her. After a visit to her separated parents in her hometown of Boxgrove, Massachusetts, she and Bruce spend the final weeks before the wedding in separate apartments, a romantic arrangement that temporarily eases her doubts.

The wedding takes place at a refurbished barn in the Hudson Valley. Throughout the day, Abigail feels a sense of disconnection, as if she is an impostor in her own life. The event proceeds smoothly, though her friend Zoe gets drunk and causes a minor scene. During the reception, Abigail thinks she smells the distinctive French cigarettes Scottie smoked in California but dismisses it as paranoia.

For their honeymoon, Bruce surprises Abigail with a trip to Heart Pond Island, an exclusive, technology-free resort in Maine owned by his friend, Chip Ramsay. The island is luxurious but isolated, with an overly attentive staff and very few guests, most of whom are men. Abigail learns that Bruce is a part-owner of the resort. She meets another newlywed couple, Alec and Jill Greenly, and her unease grows after Jill confides that her own ex-fiancé, Porter, has also appeared at the resort in what she claims is a random coincidence.

During a cocktail hour at the main lodge, Scottie appears. He insists they meet, but she refuses. Abigail learns from a staff member, Mellie, that he is registered under the name “Scott Baumgart.” Later, he confronts her at the resort’s indoor pool, insisting they share a special connection. He attempts to blackmail her into sleeping with him again by threatening to tell Bruce about their affair, mentioning a private birthmark on her body as proof. Abigail rebuffs him and leaves.

Convinced she is in danger, Abigail uses the resort’s landline to call Zoe, who discovers that Scottie’s real name is Eric Newman. His wife, Madeleine, drowned on their honeymoon two years prior. Abigail’s attempts to leave the island are thwarted when Chip claims no flights are available until the next day. The resort’s phones then mysteriously stop working. Mellie secretly warns Abigail that Jill is still on the island and not to trust Bruce, but offers no further help. Growing more suspicious, Abigail searches Bruce’s belongings and finds a silver ring depicting a man’s face made of leaves, an image she later connects to the cult.

Abigail had planned to meet Jill at the pool, but Jill never arrives. That night, Abigail is awakened by Jill, who is frantic and bleeding outside her cabin. Jill runs into the woods before Abigail can help her. When Abigail alerts Bruce and the staff, Chip insists that Jill and Alec left the island that afternoon. The next day, Eric finds Abigail in the woods and corroborates her story, claiming he also saw a woman in a nightgown and that no plane left the island as Chip claimed.

Eric confesses that an anonymous client hired him to seduce her at the vineyard as a “fidelity test,” and Abigail assumes it was Bruce. Devastated, she confronts Bruce. He becomes verbally abusive, calling her a “spoiled bitch,” and denies hiring Eric. He finally agrees to arrange a plane to take them off the island.

At the airfield, Bruce, Chip, Eric, and the pilot reveal their complicity. They are all part of a misogynistic cult that orchestrates elaborate punishments for women they deem unfaithful. As Abigail tries to flee, the pilot tackles her, and Chip injects her with a sedative.

Abigail awakens handcuffed in a dark room with Jill, who recounts a similar story of being tested and then assaulted by her husband, Alec, and her ex-fiancé, Porter. The women are taken to a clearing in the woods, where Chip leads a mock trial. Surrounded by the masked members of the cult, they are accused of “infidelity and wantonness” (253). Bruce and Alec are given retractable stage knives to perform a fake execution. However, in a moment of rage, Alec brutally murders Jill with a rock.

In the ensuing chaos, Abigail escapes into the woods. She hides in her own empty cabin until Bruce returns. When he discovers her, he attacks, and she kills him with a kitchen knife in self-defense. Arming herself, she makes her way to the pond, incapacitates a guard, and steals his rifle and a kayak. At the cove, Eric tries to stop her, and she shoots him in the leg with the rifle before paddling out into the ocean.

After a grueling journey, Abigail reaches the mainland at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where she calls 911. The authorities launch an investigation into Heart Pond Island, exposing the “Silvanus Cult,” a men’s rights group led by Chip Ramsay. Chip is arrested, Eric cooperates with the investigation, Alec dies by suicide in jail, and Porter disappears.

Months later, Abigail is living in Boxgrove, recovering from the trauma. She receives her wedding photos and finds an image of Eric Newman at the wedding, confirming he was stalking her all along. Reflecting on her ordeal, she resolves to survive and tell her story.