Next to Heaven

Set in New Bethlehem, a fictional wealthy Connecticut town home to roughly seventeen thousand overwhelmingly white, affluent residents who prize privacy and achievement, the novel follows several interconnected families whose lives collide at a swingers' party that sets in motion an affair, a murder, and an elaborate act of revenge.

Devon Kensington McCallister comes from the storied Kensington family of Greenwich, Connecticut, but by the time she finishes college, her parents have squandered the family fortune through decades of leisure. They tell her she must either earn or marry a fortune. Devon works as the youngest director at the world's most prestigious art gallery, where she meets Billy McCallister, a self-made hedge fund titan from working-class Long Island driven by his late father's ridicule. Devon courts Billy through a high-stakes art deal, and their relationship accelerates: engaged after six months, married a year later, two children, Charlotte and Nicholas, a fortune that grows to billions. But after Devon's difficult second pregnancy and Billy's professional struggles, they drift apart into a loveless arrangement governed by a prenuptial agreement neither can afford to trigger. Devon persuades Billy to move the family to New Bethlehem.

Grace Hunter, who grew up in Chicago as the daughter of a professor and a nurse, is a gifted tennis player who meets Alex Hunter on a Nantucket beach. Alex is a legendary New Bethlehem athlete and briefly an NFL player who transitions to equity sales in Manhattan. They marry and settle in New Bethlehem, where Grace throws herself into motherhood while rumors of Alex's infidelity surface repeatedly. Each time, she chooses to believe his explanations.

Belle Hedges Moore, a Texas oil heiress and Devon's closest friend, lives with her husband, Teddy Moore, a private equity partner known as "the Closer." Teddy has had severe, unexplained erectile dysfunction for ten years. He has told Belle she is free to pursue other men, asking only for discretion.

Charlie Dunlap, a hockey coach whose playing career ended after a devastating head injury, maintains a casual relationship with Katy Boyle, a math teacher at New Bethlehem Middle School. Katy grew up in South Boston with violently abusive parents and was rescued by a fourth-grade teacher, Miss Murphy, who adopted her. At Columbia University, Katy explored her sexuality extensively, including making pornographic videos, before taking the teaching job in New Bethlehem to build the stable life she dreamed of as a child.

Over lunch, Belle proposes that she and Devon host a swingers' party. They select four couples and predetermine the pairings. Devon takes Alex, whose bedroom reputation intrigues her. Belle takes Charlie. Teddy is matched with Grace, whom they expect will refuse to participate, sparing him humiliation. Billy is paired with Katy, whom Charlie has described as sexually adventurous. Alex, who has secretly lost his job months earlier and drained every family account through gambling, drugs, and escorts, sees the party as his chance to seduce Devon and escape financial ruin. He agrees without telling Grace the party's true nature. Katy reluctantly agrees as a favor to Charlie, on the condition that she will not participate sexually. Charlie tells her he relayed this to Devon but never makes the call. Before the party, Billy secretly purchases quaaludes, a banned sedative, intending to use them on someone without consent.

At the McCallisters' estate, Devon and Alex immediately and passionately have sex. Belle and Charlie do the same. Grace, stunned to discover this is a swingers' party, is relieved when Teddy enters her room, confirms he will not touch her, and shakes her hand. They spend the evening talking, playing video games, and walking by a pond; when they hold hands, Teddy experiences a full erection for the first time in years. Meanwhile, Billy enters Katy's room and reveals he knows about the pornographic videos she made in New York. He threatens to send them to the school board, forces her to drink champagne laced with quaaludes, and rapes her. Ana, Devon's Costa Rican housekeeper and closest confidante, who has herself endured Billy's sexual abuse and violent threats, watches everything on the estate's security cameras.

The aftermath diverges sharply. Devon and Alex begin a passionate affair at Willowvale, her family's grand Greenwich estate. Teddy, his physical condition restored, thinks of Grace constantly. Grace suspects Alex lied about the party. Katy wakes in devastating pain, consumed by guilt and shame. Billy continues to threaten her from his encrypted satellite phone, War, demanding further encounters.

Alex approaches the affair strategically, researching Devon and shaping himself into the man she needs. Though he develops genuine feelings, his primary motivation is financial rescue. He begins stealing from Willowvale: watches, earrings, silver, gold bars, and Devon's childhood jewelry collection. Devon, aware of every theft through tracking devices and surveillance, has Ana quietly buy back the stolen items from Alex's fence in New York, knowing Grace will need whatever money remains.

At a country club banquet, Grace's tennis rival Laney Lucas reveals that Alex has lost his job and is having an affair with Devon. Alex eventually tells Grace he is leaving; she discovers the catastrophic truth of their finances for the first time. Devon tells Billy she wants a divorce. Both sides' attorneys advise patience. Billy forces Alex to fire Charlie from the hockey association. Charlie, blindsided and consumed by rage, begins parking outside Alex's house late at night.

Grace's parents find Alex dead in his living room: wrists in handcuffs, a plastic bag duct-taped over his head. The investigation, led by David Genovese, a decorated former NYPD officer now serving as New Bethlehem's investigative sergeant, consumes the town. Charlie, discovered on security cameras parked outside Alex's house on multiple nights, becomes the prime suspect and is shunned by the community.

The case breaks when David shows the evidence to Katy. She has a visceral reaction to the crime-scene photo of a scotch glass, which prompts her to ask whether investigators checked Billy's phones, plural. David did not know about the second phone. Katy then reveals what Billy did to her. A search warrant yields War, whose location data traces a path from the McCallister home to the Hunter house on the night of the murder. Matching scotch, duct tape, plastic bags, and quaaludes are found at Billy's properties. Billy accepts a plea deal for first-degree murder.

The truth is that Devon and Ana committed the murder and framed Billy. Their plan was born from shared suffering: Billy agreed to stop abusing Ana only if Devon would take her place, and Devon endured his violent assaults. They conceived the swingers' party as a provocation, hoping something actionable would emerge. When Devon discovered Alex was destroying his family, stealing from hers, and had made a forcible advance on Ana, they decided to act. On the night of the murder, they laced Billy's scotch with his own quaaludes. After he passed out, they took his phone, his car, and a glass stolen weeks earlier from his office. Ana entered Alex's house and lured him into drinking drugged scotch; when he collapsed, Devon taped a plastic bag over his head. They drove Billy's car along the route to create the digital trail that convicted him, returned everything, and slipped back to Willowvale undetected.

Billy's guilty plea invalidates the prenup. Devon's attorneys secure a settlement of over five billion dollars. She buys a beachfront estate in Nosara, Costa Rica, and a neighboring property for Ana, to whom she gives $250 million. They move there with their children and never return. Belle and Teddy divorce amicably; Belle and Charlie move to Ibiza and remain in love. Teddy settles in Tiburon, California, where Grace and her children join him. On a quiet beach, Teddy proposes, and Grace says yes. David proposes to Katy at the bar where they met; she says yes.