The Break-In

Alice Rathbone, an art restoration expert, kills 18-year-old Ezra Jones by striking him with a metal stool during a playdate at her East London home. Ezra had broken through the basement door, seized a kitchen knife, and was heading toward the room where Alice's five-year-old daughter, Martha, and other children were with the family's nanny, Becca Cox. Alice is arrested on suspicion of murder and released on bail. She spirals into guilt, watching news clips of Ezra's grieving mother, Linda Jones, and reading hostile online comments. Her husband, Jamie, a senior executive at a charity called Handhold, urges her to move on. A separate chapter shows an unidentified figure throwing a phone into the Regent's Canal before dawn.

Alice cannot accept that the break-in was random. At the pool with Martha, she receives an anonymous call from a distorted voice warning her there was a reason Ezra came to her house. She violates her bail by visiting Ezra's housing estate. Linda invites her inside without appearing to recognize her. Over gin and tonics, Linda reveals Ezra had gotten involved in something dangerous and mentions his twin sister, Jade. When Alice slips into Ezra's bedroom, she discovers a star-shaped rainbow key ring Martha made at art club, recently missing from Alice's keys. She pockets it, convinced Ezra had been watching her family.

A chapter from Linda's perspective reveals she recognized Alice immediately. Linda, who has terminal cancer, begins writing a confessional account. Alice returns and encounters Jade, who is visibly pregnant and mistakes Alice for a baby bank worker. Alice begins bringing baby clothes and visiting regularly. She grows uneasy: She catches Jade reaching into her jacket pocket, a family photograph vanishes from her wallet, and Jade mentions Linda was hospitalized after a fall. The charges against Alice are dropped, but threatening posts from an account called @hatchetjob escalate.

Alice enlists Stella, a journalist at the Sunday Times and a friend from the school gates, to investigate Ezra's background. Stella agrees but privately pursues a separate investigation, searching for Clara Layward, a missing volunteer connected to Jamie's past. Meanwhile, Becca tells Alice she is quitting, close to tears but refusing to explain. On vacation in Rye, Alice confesses everything to Jamie, who is furious and forbids contact with Ezra's family. That night, a dead seagull with a nearly severed head appears on their doorstep.

The novel flashes back to the day of the break-in. Becca calls in sick. By evening, a rainstorm traps Alice's friends Yas and Stella at the house. Becca, who recovers late, arrives and leaves a kitchen knife on the sideboard. Jamie comes home, meets Stella for the first time, then goes out to buy milk. Ezra breaks through the basement door, grabs the knife, and heads for the children. Alice brings the stool down on his skull.

In autumn, Alice starts at the Cunliffe Institute, her new art-restoration workplace, restoring a Vermeer painting. Stella's research yields nothing connecting Ezra to Alice or Jamie, but Yas warns Alice that Stella has been asking probing questions about Jamie's past in Africa. Alice learns that Clara Layward went missing in Tanzania while working at Jamie's former charity.

When Jade's baby is born, Alice goes to the hospital and later recognizes gold earrings Jade is wearing as her mother's stolen antiques. At Jade's flat, she finds a hidden box of stolen belongings, printouts, and bloody feathers, confirming Jade has known her identity all along. Stella obtains Jade's criminal record, showing harassment, restraining order violations, and a suspected assault on Linda. At the Cunliffe, Alice's Vermeer is destroyed with hot coffee, and she is suspended; the only pass used that night was hers, which went missing weeks earlier.

Detective Chief Inspector Barnes calls to say the @hatchetjob threats were posted from Alice's home computer. Alice finds intimate photographs of Becca during the seizure. Becca tearfully says she signed an agreement preventing her from speaking. Alice discovers Jamie's phone behind the sofa and his work email bouncing back. At Handhold, a colleague named Isobel reveals Jamie has left the charity. Jade then texts Alice promising the truth. Alice goes to the flat with a kitchen knife for protection but finds blood and no Jade. Police arrive, finding Alice holding the knife and smeared with blood. During interrogation, Barnes turns every piece of evidence against her and reveals Jamie has disappeared.

Released on bail, Alice meets Isobel in secret. Isobel reveals the full truth: Jamie had a sexual relationship with Jade when she was a 16-year-old Handhold service user. Isobel confesses she was the anonymous caller, warning Alice about Jamie, not Ezra. Linda's chapters, narrated in her own voice, reveal the family's history. Her husband John had Huntington's disease, an incurable degenerative neurological condition. Each child had a 50-50 chance of inheriting it. As John's illness worsened, Linda overdosed him on medication and suffocated him; 14-year-old Jade witnessed it. Ezra later developed symptoms and was diagnosed as a teenager. At a family dinner, Jade saw Ezra's trembling hands, learned the truth, and touched her stomach. She was pregnant by Jamie.

Alice discovers Stella's maiden name is Layward: Clara was Stella's sister. Martha identifies the key ring as belonging to Frankie, Stella's daughter and Martha's school friend, proving Stella had contact with Ezra's family before Alice asked her to investigate. Stella reveals Jamie had a sexual relationship with her 18-year-old sister, then left her drunk and alone at a roadside in Arusha, Tanzania. Clara was never seen again.

Jamie returns, admits to sleeping with Jade, and begs Alice to flee to France. She refuses and calls the police. He takes Martha from school the next day. Alice traces him to Gull Cry, a beach house in Camber Sands, and drives there after alerting Stella. She finds Martha drugged and asleep. Jamie hands Alice whiskey laced with sleeping pills. She realizes there is no escape plan: He intends for all three of them to die. Stella bursts in with a knife. Police arrive after a stolen-car report. Stella stabs Jamie. Alice collapses.

A month later, Becca reveals she saw Jamie with Jade before the break-in. When she confronted him, Jamie accessed intimate photos Becca had sent to her girlfriend, Carly, and blackmailed her into silence. Alice asks Becca to return as Martha's nanny. A final chapter reveals Becca was Stella's accomplice: Stella recruited her to call in sick, leave the knife out, secure the children, and text a burner phone signaling Ezra to arrive. The plan went wrong when Jamie left for milk and Ezra broke in early. Becca disposed of her burner in the canal, the unidentified figure from the novel's opening.

Stella's final chapters reveal her full manipulation. She stole items from Alice's house and planted them at Jade's, left the dead seagull in Rye, posted the @hatchetjob threats from Alice's computer, and destroyed the Vermeer with Alice's stolen pass. When Jade found the burner phone and confronted her, Stella killed Jade and dumped the body in the canal. At Gull Cry, Stella came not to save Alice but to kill Jamie. Alice lied to police to protect Stella and, by extension, Stella's daughter Frankie. Returning from Tanzania, Stella is intercepted by armed officers at Heathrow after her newspaper colleague alerted police to Clara's connection to Jamie.