Happy Wife

Will Somerset is the husband of protagonist Nora Somerset. He turns 46 shortly before his disappearance, which is the inciting incident for the action of Happy Wife. He is described as “broad shouldered, and hot” (49), with “piercing blue eyes” (4) and “chiseled features” (49). Will is defined by his intelligence: Nora describes him as the “the brains” (14) of his successful law firm and “the smartest man [she] know[s]” (161). Will’s brilliance is most obvious in his final act, when he swallows a sapphire knocked loose by his murderer: “[A]lways the lawyer, he knew a good piece of evidence anywhere” (299). The novel’s emphasis on Will’s intelligence reflects Nora’s idolization of him as her husband.

Despite Nora’s love and respect for Will, the novel suggests that he has some unsettling flaws. Nora acknowledges that her husband “worked so hard to get where he is” that he is hard on people he perceives as lazy: “[H]e expects everyone else to have his level of care” (16). Nora admires Will’s dedication to achieving justice for “people who, in all likelihood, have been through something terrible” (62). However, she resents the fact that “he’d work twenty-four hours a day if he could” (24), and his chronic neglect of her seriously strains their marriage.

More troublingly, Will also demonstrates controlling tendencies throughout their relationship. Nora admits that she feels pressured not to speak up when Will’s workaholic tendencies negatively impact her, and she is surprised to learn after his disappearance how many secrets he kept from her. She also admits that she changed her life and habits to conform to Will’s desires, with Will even planning things and making decisions without consulting Nora beforehand as an equal partner. Will’s worst behavior occurs during a fight shortly before his birthday, when he gets angry at Nora for challenging him and becomes abusive, throwing a heavy glass at her. Although he eventually apologizes and the couple reconciles, his disappearance shortly afterwards leaves whether or not Will was truly going to change his ways an open-ended question.

Este is Nora Somerset’s best friend and her reliable source of support. She is described as “a California transplant with a relatively new, but massive fortune” acquired after her husband Beau sold his tech company (8). Este is characterized by her boisterous nature and her position as an intentional outsider. From the beginning of the novel, Este acts as a source of comic relief, openly criticizing the Winter Park social circle. Nora is drawn to Este because of her confidence, celebrating her ability to be “dismissive and yet somehow not offensive” (7) and to “courier the truth with an ease and sense of perpetual relief” (133).

Nora and Este are united by their positions as outsiders among the Winter Park social circle. Crucially, however, Este’s “on-the-fringes lifestyle was by choice” (8), while Nora feels excluded against her will. While Nora struggles to fit in among the other Winter Park Wives, she notes that “Este has not even attempted to fit in among the country club set” (8, emphasis added).

Este remains a significant source of emotional support for Nora after Will’s disappearance, trying to keep Nora’s spirits up with outings and keeping her company. At one point, Este worries that Nora killed Will and may have been having an affair with Marcus, but she is quick to trust Nora when Nora insists upon her innocence. Este’s loyalty and genuine affection for Nora make her an important foil to the snobby Winter Park women who reject Nora.

Marcus Campbell is a friend of Nora Somerset and her primary love interest outside of her marriage. He is described as “tall and tan with a boyish grin and a dark brown, tousled surfer haircut” and “intensely kind” eyes (151, 11).

Marcus is characterized as a foil to Will Somerset. While Will is only attentive to Nora only on his schedule, Marcus has “an incredible ability to just wait. To be patient. To give space” for Nora to be herself (184). When Nora tells Marcus that she wants to go back to school—the same thing she said to Will on their first date—she is shocked to find that he is “the only person who had ever asked [her] a follow-up question” (170). These examples suggest that Marcus is attentive to Nora in a way that highlights Will’s absences and emotional neglect.

While Will helps Nora to be an idealized version of herself, Marcus forces Nora to confront the truth about herself. When Will takes Nora to Palm Beach as an apology for a violent fight, Marcus demands that she acknowledge it as an act of bribery, “yanking [her] back down to earth” (205). Although Nora “kind of hated” (250) Marcus for his ability to hold a mirror to her flaws, she also acknowledges that he is “the most benevolent person [she] know[s]” (253), and only has her best interests at heart.

Autumn Kensington is a party planner who works closely with Nora throughout Happy Wife. Autumn’s complex relationships with Nora and the other Winter Park residents she works with demonstrate the power dynamic between the ultra-rich and everyone else in Winter Park. Nora is shocked when she learns that Autumn overheard a fight between Will and Fritz Hall containing crucial information. Autumn explains that she often hears sensitive information, “because [she] plan[s] the parties and [she’s] in their houses and they talk freely because [she’s] basically invisible to them” (270, emphasis added). While Autumn’s clients see her as a part of an “invisible” service class, Autumn believes that the boundaries are more fluid, and she takes advantage of that fluidity where she can.

Although Autumn values her relationship with Nora, she also knows that she cannot afford to “alienate” (196) her other clients by admitting that she listens to their conversation. The fact that Nora is able to forgive Autumn reflects the impossibility of Autumn’s position. Nora acknowledges that Autumn “has the worst position in this whole thing” (196), and regrets the fact that “the people with the money and power always have the upper hand” (270).

Frederick “Fritz” Hall III is Will Somerset’s business partner and a primary antagonist in Happy Wife. He is the embodiment of the Winter Park social circle, coming from one of the town’s founding families. The novel depicts Winter Park as simultaneously charming and stifling. In the same way, Fritz “can be really charming sometimes” (270), but Nora also describes him as “the kind of person you either love or find yourself needing an escape from” (14). Nora believes that the “radioactive variant of privilege and an air of invincibility” (102) Fritz emits is tied to the fact that his family is “hard-core Winter Park royalty” (13). Fritz’s close ties with the city’s social circle makes him an effective manifestation of the town’s disarmingly charming arrogance.

The final section of the novel is designed to mislead readers into believing that Fritz is responsible for Will’s death, and that he is using his influence to cover up the crime. His wife Gianna is actually the murderer, but Fritz also ends up arrested for forging Will’s signature on lines of credit and fraudulently running up millions in debt. Fritz’s threats towards Nora as soon as she starts to defy or suspect him also reveal the controlling, darker aspects of his nature, suggesting that while he did not kill Will, he is still capable of abusing others if they get in his way.

Gianna Hall is the wife of Frederick “Fritz” Hall and the primary antagonist of Happy Wife. In the final chapter of the novel, it is revealed that she killed Will Somerset and attempted to frame Nora Somerset for the crime. She is described as having “piercing eyes and sharp features” (15) that have been “frozen in time by a delicate touch of Botox and the latest technology in peels” (15).

Gianna is characterized by her paradoxical relationship towards her money: Although she loudly argues that “speaking about money or wealth is tacky” (15), she also wears her wealth conspicuously in the form of “a blinding stack of diamond rings” (15). Ironically, Gianna’s “deft ability to showcase” (17) her wealth leads to her arrest for Will’s murder, as Nora is able to identify a stone knocked out of her ring on the night of the murder.

The novel suggests that Gianna resents Nora because they have similar stories. When Gianna met Fritz during their freshman year of college, “she took one look at his pedigree and locked him down for good” (15). The idea that Gianna saw her husband as a “winning lottery ticket” suggests that she engaged in the same kind of intentional husband-hunting that she pins on Nora (15).