Happy Wife

Happy Wife (2025) is the debut novel by American authors Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores. The novel takes place in the wealthy enclave of Winter Park, Florida. When 28-year-old Nora Somerset’s husband Will disappears, the Winter Park social circle immediately suspect Nora, the interloping second wife. Nora’s search for the truth forces her to confront her deepest secrets. Major themes in the novel include The Complex Nature of Grief, The Influence of Media on the Criminal Justice System, and The Power of Cliques.

This guide is based on the 2025 Bantam Books e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of death, substance use, domestic violence, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Twenty-eight-year-old Nora Somerset throws a party for her husband Will’s 46th birthday, hoping to impress his friends, who prefer Will’s first wife, Constance. Nora’s only friends at the party are her neighbor Este and the caterer, Marcus. During the party, Nora notices tension between Will and his law partner, Frederick “Fritz” Hall III. After the party, Will receives a call from his teenage daughter Mia asking him to run an errand. Will promises to be back in five minutes, but Nora falls asleep before he returns.

The next morning, Nora notices that Will’s side of the bed is untouched. She calls him repeatedly, but receives no response. Given Will’s job as a trial lawyer, she assumes that he is at his office focused on work. When Will has still not returned the next day, his partner Fritz arrives at the house, demanding to know where he is. Nora realizes that Will has not been working, and Fritz calls the police. Although initially hesitant to cause a scandal for their firm, Fritz suggests they file a missing person’s report for Will.

Two days after Will’s disappearance, a panicked Nora drives to his office to look for clues. She finds a notecard with an unknown number before Fritz kicks her out, citing attorney-client privilege. While out with Este, Nora is confronted by Constance, who accuses her of hiding something. The next day, Nora connects the unknown number with a man named Dean Morrison, who died days prior after crashing his car on Nora’s street. Mia reveals that Will did not call her on the night he disappeared, troubling Nora. Police find the shirt Will was wearing the night he disappeared. When Detective Ardell rejects the idea that Dean Morrison is involved, Nora decides that she cannot trust him, and does not tell him about Mia’s revelation.

Nora realizes that Constance is leaking information to the press, and confronts her. Constance reveals that Will recently told her he was unhappy in his marriage to Nora. Nora confronts the driver of a car that has been following her since Will’s disappearance, and learns that Dean Morrison was a private investigator hired by Will. Six days after his disappearance, Will’s body is found in a nearby canal. When Marcus attempts to cook for and comfort Nora, she kicks him out, claiming that they were never truly friends, but something worse.

Interspersed with the main narrative are flashbacks revealing the nature of Nora’s marriage. Nora first met Will at the country club where she worked and he was a member. Although she didn’t take him seriously at first, Nora eventually fell hard for Will. However, gossip about their relationship spread quickly through the close-knit Winter Park social circle. After a romantic trip to New York City, Will and Nora returned home to find that Constance had broken into Will’s home and stolen his most expensive wine. Will decided not to call the police to avoid a fight with Constance.

After less than a year of dating, Nora and Will got engaged and married while on vacation on the island of Nevis. Will’s business partner, Fritz, was furious that he got married without making Nora sign a prenup. Nora promised to sign anything that Will asked her to, but Will never brought the subject up again.

Nora and her neighbor Este grew closer as Will’s work caused him to spend long hours away from home. Este introduced Nora to her friend Marcus, a local chef and childhood friend of Este’s husband Beau. Nora visited Marcus’s restaurant alone, and the two talked long into the night. They nearly kissed in the parking lot, confusing Nora. Nora arranged to have dinner at Marcus’s restaurant with Will, Fritz Hall, and his wife Gianna. The dinner was marred by tension between Will and Fritz, and Will’s suspicions about Nora’s relationship with Marcus.

Nora and Will’s fights came to a climax when Will threw a lead tumbler full of bourbon at her. Nora stormed out, called Marcus, and spent the night in his guest room. The next morning, she called a divorce attorney to schedule a consultation. When Will apologized, the couple reconciled, and she offered to throw him a party for his 46th birthday.

In the present, TV journalist Lindy Bedford suggests that Nora had a hand in Will’s death. Constance and Gianna ambush Nora with plans for Will’s funeral. Autumn, a party planner Nora knows, moderates, ensuring Nora is honored as Will’s wife. Detective Ardell seems suspicious when he sees Marcus embrace Nora twice during the funeral. At the reception, Will’s secretary Lenore reveals that Will and Fritz had been fighting about problems with their law firm before Will’s death.

Ardell secures a search warrant for Nora’s home, but Fritz stops him from interrogating her without him present. The murder weapon is identified as a hammer buried under Nora’s dock. Nora remembers the last person she saw with a hammer: Marcus, in a fight in which he encouraged her to leave her husband. Nora accuses Marcus of killing Will, but quickly apologizes, explaining that her grief is causing her to act erratically.

Perry Conroy’s investigations reveal that Will hired Dean Morrison to secretly investigate Fritz, and that it was Fritz who called Will the night he died. Nora discovers a photo in Will’s office suggesting that Fritz and Autumn were having an affair, and begins to believe that Fritz killed Will when Will discovered the affair. When Nora confronts Autumn, she reveals that Fritz knew Dean Morrison was investigating him and drove him off the road, causing Dean’s fatal crash. She also reveals that Fritz and Will were fighting about a large sum of money that was missing.

Perry Conroy uncovers evidence that Fritz opened lines of credit in Will’s, Nora’s, and Mia’s names to cover his personal debts. Nora brings Ardell proof of Fritz’s fraud, but Fritz has a solid alibi for the night Will was murdered. When a rare sapphire belonging to Gianna Hall is discovered in Will’s stomach, Gianna is arrested for his murder. It is revealed that she called Will from Fritz’s phone the night of the party, and killed him on the dock when he threatened to expose everything. Fritz is arrested and the law firm is sold, earning Nora millions. Nora sells Will’s house and tries to start over, grateful for Will’s role in her life.