Not Quite Dead Yet

Not Quite Dead Yet (2025) is a mystery thriller novel by British author Holly Jackson. Known for her young adult books, Jackson is the author of the best-selling A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder trilogy and stand-alone novels Five Survive (2022) and The Reappearance of Rachel Price (2024). Not Quite Dead Yet, her first adult novel, follows the last seven days in the life of Jet Mason, a 27-year-old woman attacked by an unknown assailant on Halloween night. Given one week to live due to a traumatic brain injury, Jet decides to dedicate her final days to solving her own murder. She uncovers secrets about her family and her town, unraveling the life that she thought she had. Through Jet’s journey, Jackson explores themes including The Value of Living in the Present, Reconciling with the Past, and The Connection Between Privilege and Corruption.

This guide is based on the 2025 first hardcover edition of the novel, published by Penguin Random House LLC.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of child death, death by suicide, substance use, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

Margaret “Jet” Mason attends the annual Halloween Fair, an event put on by her family in her hometown of Woodstock, Vermont. She has recently dropped out of college to live with her parents as she figures out the next steps in her life. Her parents own Mason Construction, making them one of the wealthiest families in town but also earning them locals’ ire for their gentrification of the town.

At the fair, Jet sees her ex-boyfriend, JJ, who tries to talk about their breakup. She also sees an intoxicated man named Andrew Smith, who complains to her about her parents. Local police officer, Sergeant Jack Finney, and his son Billy protect Jet from Andrew’s anger, but Jet decides to leave early to return home alone.

Back at her parents’ house, Jet sits down to watch television and is attacked from behind. She is struck in the head several times, leaving her unconscious.

Jet wakes up in the hospital. She is told that the blows to her head caused a fragment of bone to break off her skull. She is given the choice between having surgery, which has a 90% likelihood of death, or waiting for an inevitable aneurysm, which will kill her. Despite her mother’s protests, Jet elects not to have the surgery, and the doctor gives her fewer than seven days to live. She tells her family that she will use her last days to solve her own murder.

That afternoon, Jet goes back to her home to review the crime scene with Jack and Detective Ecker. The assailant came in through the back door, avoiding her parents’ Ring camera, and he took the murder weapon and her cell phone. Using her Apple watch, Jet determines the time she was knocked unconscious and her phone’s last location before it was shut off, near River Street. She also received a text message from JJ shortly after her attack, which just said, “Sorry.” Because JJ has not been heard from since the attack, he is the police’s top suspect.

That night, Jet reviews the Ring camera’s footage. She sees Billy enter the house with the police and paramedics after her attack. She also sees Sophia, her brother Luke’s wife, stop at the house twice during the day.

The next morning, Jet wakes up to Luke, Sophia, their son, and her parents having breakfast. Jet confronts Luke and Sophia about where they were during the attack. She asks Sophia about her second visit to the house; Sophia tells her that she left her phone when she dropped off cookies. Jet angrily leaves the house, insisting that she can no longer handle her mother’s pestering about the surgery.

Jet goes to stay with Billy, who was a good friend when they were younger. They have drifted apart over the years, but Billy begins to help Jet with her investigation. Upon discovering that a synthetic hair was found at the murder scene, they review pictures from the Halloween Fair and learn that Andrew and JJ both wore the same red wig.

Jet and Billy find Andrew at the local bar. He is rude and abrasive, turning the conversation to Jet’s family. Seventeen years ago, Jet’s sister Emily drowned in their family pool. Jet’s mother blamed Andrew’s daughter, Nina, and fired her, while Luke forced Andrew to sell his family home for demolition. Nina died by suicide, and Andrew blames Jet’s family. He also reveals that Jet’s father, Scott, plans to sell Mason Construction, surprising Jet, who believed that Luke would inherit the company.

Jet and Billy go to River Street, where Jet’s phone was last seen. They realize that the street is near North Street, the site of Luke’s latest construction project. They break into the site and destroy the recently laid concrete. Underneath it, they find Jet’s cell phone and the murder weapon, a hammer that is only sold as part of a larger tool set.

Jet goes to Luke for information about the site’s workers and discovers that he and Sophia were lying about the night of her attack. While Sophia claimed to have left her phone at the house, she was texting Luke. She also texted him during Jet’s attack, at a time they claimed to be together. She decides not to confront Luke and revisits the Ring footage from Sophia’s past visits to the house. She and Billy discover that Sophia frequently goes into Jet’s parents’ house. Once, she dropped off a bottle of Scott’s blood pressure pills. When they check the pills, they find that Sophia replaced them with salt.

Jet goes to Luke’s house to confront Sophia. She admits to giving Scott salt, hoping that he would retire early and leave the construction company to Luke. As Jet leaves, Luke returns home. She tells him about the pills and the sale of Mason Construction, and Luke responds with rage.

Jet and Billy decide to talk to a Mason Construction employee for more information about the site. They visit Henry, JJ’s brother, who worked for Mason before he was injured. However, when they ask him about the site, he insists that he never worked there. Jet can tell that he has recently been intimidated and beaten up, but he refuses to give them information.

Jet and Billy break into the Mason Construction building to find records of Henry’s employment. She discovers that Henry and several other employees are missing from payroll. Billy also finds forged invoices, and they realize that Mason Construction has been committing fraud. However, before they can investigate further, the building catches fire, nearly trapping them inside.

After the fire, Jet learns, through a conversation with a Town Trustee, that their family has been threatened before. She checks recordings of past town board meetings, and she finds a clip of a masked figure interrupting a meeting to threaten Jet’s mother. Jet and Billy believe that the masked figure is Nina, so they return to the bar. While Billy distracts him, Jet breaks into his apartment and finds Nina’s laptop. They learn that Jet’s sister Emily discovered a secret about her family and was going to tell Nina, but she died before she could do so.

Without any further leads, Jet and Billy check Billy’s mother’s belongings from the time of Emily’s death. She was Emily’s math teacher, and she left shortly after Emily died, without explanation. They find notes about the day Emily drowned in the pool, with Billy’s mother noting that someone was “already wet” before they found her body. Billy recalls the day Emily died, remembering vaguely that Luke had scratches on his arms and smelled of chlorine. They wonder if he could have killed Emily.

Before they can investigate further, Jet is taken in for questioning about the building site’s destruction. She is held in jail and, thinking she might die there, she writes letters to everyone in her life. However, Billy bails her out the next day, giving her another chance to solve her murder.

Jet and Billy visit Luke. Jet confronts him with a gun, forcing him to confess. He admits that he killed Emily. She revealed that Scott is not Luke’s father, and, enraged, he accidentally drowned her. His real father helped him cover it up, but Luke refuses to identify him. Before they leave, Jet slips a tracker into Luke’s truck.

Back at Billy’s apartment, Jet and Billy watch the tracker. However, when Jet is looking through Billy’s things, she discovers a toolset with a missing hammer. She accuses Billy of attacking her, but he adamantly defends herself. During the fight, her aneurysm ruptures. As she dies, she tells Billy that she knows he would never hurt her.

Eight days later, Billy solves the murder. He goes to his father Jack’s home, where he confronts him with the evidence. His mother left because she knew about Jack’s affair with Jet’s mother, which led to Luke’s birth. Jack took Billy’s hammer and attacked Jet. He admits to the crime, resentful of Jet’s family because her mother ended their affair after Emily died. He also wanted to keep the company’s fraud a secret to protect Luke.

After Jack confesses, Billy reveals that Luke was listening to the conversation. Billy plans to take the information to the police, but Luke draws a gun on Jack. Jack runs into the street, arriving at the Mason home just as Luke shoots and kills him.