Murder in the Family

The novel is presented entirely through documentary scripts, emails, text messages, voicemails, news articles, and online forum posts, all centering on the production of a true-crime streaming series called Infamous: Who Killed Luke Ryder? A prologue set in November 2023 reveals through a television review that the series has already aired with a shocking final twist, compared to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, in which the killer was hiding among the investigators. Everything that follows unfolds ten months earlier, as the documentary is made.

In January 2023, Showrunner TV announces the new season of Infamous, directed by Guy Howard, a young filmmaker whose stepfather, Luke Ryder, was found beaten to death in October 2003 at the family home, Dorney Place, in the affluent London neighborhood of Campden Hill. Guy was 10 years old at the time. Producer Nick Vincent assembles six experts: Alan Canning, a retired Metropolitan Police (the Met) detective; Mitchell Clarke, a journalist who covered the original case; Hugo Fraser, a senior criminal prosecutor and King's Counsel; Dr. Laila Furness, a forensic psychologist; JJ Norton, a crime scene investigator; and Bill Serafini, a retired New York Police Department (NYPD) detective. Private texts between Guy's sisters, Maura and Amelie Howard, reveal Amelie's deep unease about the project and Maura's promise to keep things under control.

The first episode, filmed at Dorney Place in April 2023, establishes the case. Guy explains that on the night of October 3, 2003, Maura, then 15, found Luke beaten in the garden. Their mother, Caroline, was at a nearby party, and the girls had been at the cinema. The Howard family history is troubled: Guy's father, Andrew Howard, married Caroline Farrow, his children's former au pair, after the suspicious death of his first wife in 1986. Andrew's elder son from that first marriage, Rupert Howard, bitterly resented Caroline. Andrew died of a heart attack in 1999 when Guy was six, an event Guy witnessed but has no memory of.

Luke Ryder, introduced as a 26-year-old Australian, met Rupert while traveling in Greece in 1999 and married Caroline in 2002, provoking gossip about their 14-year age gap. The forensic evidence shows Luke died from eight blows of blunt-force trauma to the face; the murder weapon was never identified; no break-in was detected; and a mysterious phone call from a King's Cross payphone to the house that afternoon was never traced. The episode ends with Mitchell's surprise revelation that he was detained for questioning the night of the murder.

In subsequent episodes, the investigation expands. Mitchell reveals he was a young freelance journalist who followed a police car to the scene and was arrested. New evidence emerges that Caroline was having an affair the summer before the murder: Amelie once overheard her mother with a man upstairs, and a red MGB sports car was spotted outside the house repeatedly. Rupert's alibi at a Cambridge dinner holds up despite a suspicious phone call during the meal, and the team determines that killing Luke would not have advanced Rupert's financial interests.

Mitchell, investigating Luke's years in Australia, discovers a hit-and-run accident in Sydney in November 1995 that left a young student named Mohammed Khan in a coma. The accident occurred on the route between Luke's home and workplace, and Luke abruptly quit his job days later. Bill then delivers a bombshell: The real Luke Ryder died in a bus bombing in Beirut in 1997. The man who married Caroline was an impostor who stole the dead man's passport, identified by a tattoo the murder victim did not have. Bill traces the impostor to the identity of Eric Dwight Fulton of Alabama, but people who knew Fulton describe someone bearing no resemblance to the impostor. The team realizes they are dealing with a serial identity thief who was neither Luke Ryder nor Eric Fulton. Under the Fulton identity, the impostor defrauded Rose Shulman, a wealthy New York socialite, of approximately $800,000 and heirloom jewelry. Hugo traces the will of Florence Ryder, Luke's supposed grandmother, whose estate of over four million pounds passed to Margaret Wilson, a cousin of Florence's late husband. Margaret's son, Ian Wilson, emerges as a suspect with strong financial motive, since the supposed grandson's existence threatened the inheritance.

JJ Norton makes the crucial identification. By enhancing a photograph from the dead man's wallet, JJ identifies a water tower in Flamborough, New Brunswick, Canada. There, a retired minister identifies the family as the McKennas. Their son Jonah, a charming boy, faked his own drowning at 17 after a violent confrontation with a wealthy yachtsman whose wife Jonah had become involved with at a Nova Scotia marina. Age-progression software produces a striking match to the man known as Luke Ryder.

As the investigation advances, Nick's manipulations surface. He admits he deliberately selected team members because of their connections to the case, not despite them. Bill is revealed to have been the NYPD detective originally assigned to the Fulton fraud case in 1997, pursuing the impostor for decades on behalf of the Shulman family. Hugo admits he was Caroline's secret lover; the red MGB belonged to his sister. Mitchell confesses he was in a sexual relationship with the 15-year-old Maura at the time of the murder. Laila acknowledges that her brother Mohammed was the Sydney hit-and-run victim. JJ, adopted and born in Birmingham in 1979, the same year and city as a baby Caroline gave up for adoption, angrily denies being Caroline's child.

Under Alan's methodical questioning, Maura inadvertently reveals that the washing machine was already running when she arrived home the night of the murder. She breaks down and admits she spent 20 years believing Amelie killed Luke, having found her sister rinsing blood in the utility room. The Met arrests Amelie based on DNA matching her hair to strands found in Luke's jacket zipper.

In the final episode, however, a secretly recorded prison conversation between the sisters reveals the truth: The hair caught in the jacket days earlier when Amelie tried it on. Amelie denies killing Luke, and she reveals she has been allowing an abuse narrative to stand because it serves her defense. Each sister spent two decades believing the other was the killer, but neither was.

Ian Wilson then comes forward from Namibia. He admits he went to Dorney Place that night to argue about Florence Ryder's inheritance. During the confrontation, Luke slipped and fell on the stone steps, hitting his head. Wilson fled, but as he looked back he saw a child, no more than 10, standing over the unconscious body holding something. Nick places a child's cricket bat, still bearing traces of blood, on the table. Laila explains that Guy, who witnessed his father's fatal collapse at age six, developed dissociative episodes triggered by seeing someone collapse. In such a state, 10-year-old Guy attacked the unconscious Luke with his cricket bat. Amelie discovered what happened, cleaned the bat, washed Guy's pajamas, and put him back to bed, protecting her brother for 20 years. Guy's video feed goes dark.

The epilogue reveals Guy was found dead at his mother's home in Somerset from an apparent overdose. An elderly neighbor reported seeing a red-haired woman in a nurse's uniform entering the house, but police discounted this after the care agency denied sending anyone. A small item in the Flamborough Gazette reports a Breitling Avenger watch found on Jonah McKenna's memorial, engraved with a name beginning with "G" and a reference to a 21st birthday, matching the watch Caroline gave Guy. These final details suggest that Rebecca McKenna, Jonah's protective sister who went into nursing and overseas charity work, visited Guy on the day he died, and that Guy's watch was left on Jonah's memorial as a final act of acknowledgment.