The Woman in Suite 11

“When I walked into the bedroom, I sucked in my breath.”

This is the first line of the main narrative in Chapter 1. The imagery of breathing connects to the Prologue’s imagery about being underwater, connecting the dream with Lo’s lived reality on the Aurora. However, Lo’s breathing relates to her children making a mess; this presents the domestic sphere in contrast with her work that takes place in suites cleaned by housekeepers.

“At the plane’s door, a cabin attendant greeted each of us by name—there were only three other first-class passengers—and showed us to what she described as our ‘suites,’ which were more like little cubicles, each equipped with a huge wide-screen TV, flat bed, and ottoman, and a sliding door for extra privacy.”

This is the first suite in the novel and is a reference to its title. The list of amenities illustrates the association of suites with wealth and luxury on Swiss Air. This suite is comparable to the suites in the two hotels that Lo stays in. Later, these luxurious locations contrast with a custody suite in the police station.

“The wealthy are never really dead […] They die, of course. Sans doute. But their wealth, their fortune, lives on, and with it their influence. Money does not die, Laura. And nor do secrets. There are plenty of people who might wish that book unwritten.”

The food critic who was aboard the Aurora is at the Grand Hotel du Lac’s opening and comments on Laura’s memoir, Dark Waters. It symbolizes a threat to wealthy people, referencing Lord Richard Bullmer’s family and friends from The Woman in Cabin 10. Carrie murdered him, but his estate still has money and, with it, power and influence.

“But the person who was actually facing me—the person standing right there in the doorway of suite 11, macaron in hand—was a figure that had haunted my dreams, my nightmares, and my waking hours for ten long years, ever since I’d said goodbye to her on the shores of Norwegian fjord.”

This passage introduces Carrie, the titular “woman” in both this novel and The Woman in Cabin 10. Carrie and Lo were enemies who became friends on the Aurora. However, Carrie helped imprison Lo, and Lo’s dreams about Carrie are one residual effect of the events on the ship, again highlighting The Effects of Trauma Due to Imprisonment as a theme.

“She had little notion of any wider concerns than keeping her child happy. She was a rather limited person in many ways.”

This is how Marcus describes his late wife, Elke. The phrase “a rather limited person” (127) is repeated later to emphasize its importance. Elke’s motherhood contrasts with Lo’s. While Elke had to make it her whole life, Lo worked before getting pregnant, returning to work when her children start school. Elke and Lo differ vastly in their experience of motherhood.

“I’d expected her to be more jittery, but she was focused, her expression a kind of rigid calm. I could practically see her brain ticking, working out what this meant.”

This is Lo’s observation about Carrie when Carrie learns that Marcus has arrived at the Old Manor hotel, where she’s hiding. Lo doesn’t know what Carrie is thinking: how to pull off Marcus’s murder, with Pieter’s assistance, and without Lo finding out. Carrie’s internal life differs greatly from Lo’s external perception of her; she plays a role for Lo when it suits her purpose.

“His smile as he asked the question seemed genuine this time—and it transformed his slightly weak face into something charming, much more charming in its own way than his father’s chiseled determination.”

This is when Pieter asks to call Lo by her first name and develops Pieter’s character, distinguishing him from his father. It’s a clue to how he stood up for Carrie against Marcus; he believes that she shouldn’t be imprisoned and abused. This makes him more charming than an abuser like Marcus.

“I’d encountered enough predatory men to know that once they acquired a taste for exploitation, they rarely stopped at one pretty young woman.”

This passage develops the theme of How the Wealthy Can Control Others. Marcus, like other billionaires, can get away with sexual assault because he retains expensive lawyers. Their ability to control the legal system via money increases their number of victims.

“He had phrased it casually, almost like the quest had only occurred to him because of what I’d just said, but I had a horrible feeling that this last-minute ambush, Columbo-style, had been quite deliberate.”

This comes at the end of the interview between Lo and a police officer named Dickers. The novel references the classic television show, Columbo, which features a lower-middle-class detective, played by Peter Falk, taking down wealthy murderers. This allusion develops the theme of How the Wealthy Can Control Others.

“I thought of Heinrich, of his huge hands and the impression I’d had of coiled strength, and shivered.”

Lo’s suspicion that Marcus’s bodyguard murdered him is a classic red herring. His physically imposing nature makes him an easy suspect. The novel uses Heinrich not as a character, but as a distraction from the real murderers: Pieter and Carrie.

“I could see that he was young for an inspector, and very handsome, almost improbably so for a police officer, though on reflection, I guessed there was no reason the police couldn’t be as good-looking as people in any other profession.”

This scene introduces Filippo, posing as an Interpol agent. However, Lo guesses the truth: that he’s not a police officer. He was Marcus’s driver and became Carrie’s lover. Carrie uses him to find out what Lo is saying to law enforcement, and she later uses him as part of her escape plan when Lo asks Carrie to turn herself in.

“It is much better to be frank about these things, I find. Honesty is always the best policy.”

The phrase “Honesty is always the best policy” repeats several times, such as on page 322. In other words, Lo recalls it several times. The phrase is ironic because Filippo isn’t honest with Lo. He’s hiding his true identity when he says this, but it becomes a mantra for Lo.

“I couldn’t help reflecting on the irony of that word, suite. It covered so many possibilities. From the first-class suite on Swiss Air to the palatial Monte Rosa suite in the Grand Hotel du Lac to the junior suite at the Old Manor hotel and, finally, to this—a cell in the custody suite at West Tyning police station. It was a pretty steep fall.”

This passage develops the titular choice for the novel. The word “suite” is multifaceted. It can refer to a luxurious place, like where Carrie was imprisoned, or a jail cell, like where Lo was imprisoned. Luxury doesn’t necessarily mean that a place isn’t also a prison or (as the homonym might imply) a place is “sweet.”

“I’m not usually a crier—I don’t process stress like that; instead, I turn it all inwards—so I shocked myself by bursting into tears when I heard his voice, and Judah had spent most of the rest of the call trying to talk me down and saying comforting things about Dan’s expertise, my rights as a US citizen, and the fact that I definitely wasn’t going to go to a jail for a crime I hadn’t committed.”

This passage develops Lo and Judah as characters. Lo isn’t overly weepy until she’s dealing with murder and helping a woman escape abuse; she usually keeps her feelings inside, which is a classic British stereotype. Judah reminds her that she’s also an American after marrying him, and he’s supportive of her, even when she’s a murder suspect.

“For ten years, she must have carried that copy with her across Europe. Was it the link with me? Or the link with what she had done? I wasn’t sure. Either way, the book had clearly meant enough to her that she had kept it with her as she moved cities and countries and as layer after layer of the old Carrie was stripped away.”

This develops the symbolism of books; Lo is describing a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh. It represents Lo and Carrie’s relationship: Their relationship started antagonistic, but ended in their becoming friends. Lo and Carrie are foils, like Tigger and Pooh, but are similar in that they both understand the residual effects of trauma, illustrating the theme of The Effects of Trauma Due to Imprisonment.

“The woman, described as being in her early forties, white, and of slim build, is approximately 5ft 6in or 170cm tall, with dark eyes and dark hair, which she may have dyed.”

This is the last intertextual element at the end of Part 4; Parts 1-4 end with media that follow the events of the preceding chapters. In this case, it’s a BBC News story that describes Lo. Journalistic diction is much different than that of fiction; this device helps develop Lo’s character through multiple voices.

“She looked down at her own knuckles, at the big glowing sapphire on her left hand, and her face clouded. ‘Fuck.’”

Carrie’s ring symbolizes her murder of Marcus; it left a mark on his body. Without this mark, Marcus’s death might have been ruled a heart attack or accident. Furthermore, this quote is a minor example of Carrie’s excessive swearing; her foul language is a key aspect of her characterization.

“For Carrie to go to prison for freeing herself from a man like Marcus—well, that didn’t seem like justice.”

Lo thinks Marcus deserved to be murdered for how he treated Carrie. Lo understands and empathizes with the homicide as a result of how Marcus traumatized Carrie. The only reason Lo asks Carrie to turn herself in is so that Lo can get off the police’s suspect list.

“She was remembering how we had found ourselves once before on opposite sides of a terrible divide and how we had saved ourselves, and each other.”

This is another example of Carrie’s behavior clashing with Lo’s external perception of her. Carrie has just lied to Lo, saying she’ll go with Filippo; Lo thinks he’s with Interpol, when in fact he’s Carrie’s boyfriend and part of her escape plan. Lo wears her heart on her sleeve, while Carrie is constantly lying; this is one way in which they’re foils.

“Stupid Lo. Stupid fucking Lo, always rushing headlong into the need to be proved right.”

Lo identifies Pieter after he breaks into Pam’s house to steal the phone Carrie left in Lo’s pocket. He warns her that she shouldn’t have admitted she knew it was him (he was wearing a mask). A core part of Lo’s character is the need for proof that she’s correct; this is her motivation for getting involved in the murders of wealthy people, both in this book and in The Woman in Cabin 10.

“For a long time, years now, home had been where Judah and the boys were, no matter where that was—and as I waited patiently at the e-passport gates, I felt a thrill of excitement that in just a few short minutes I was going to see them, hug them, hold them in my arms.”

Lo’s working and helping Carrie escape kept her away from home and away from her children. In this passage, she articulates her feelings about reuniting with Eli and Teddy. She appreciates motherhood more after starting to balance it with her career, and she feels more confident in her dual identity as a writer and mother, as well as in her dual national identity. This foregrounds The Challenges of Reestablishing a Career as a theme.

“There’s nothing like being threatened with a life sentence in jail to make you value your own bed.”

Back in her New York home with her family, Lo is comfortable enough to make quips. This shows that she can finally relax; her mental health significantly improves in the domestic sphere, a relatively comfortable, safe environment, compared with being in jail. To Lo, being in her middle-class home is also better than being in a luxurious suite and seeing gratuitous displays of wealth, emphasizing the theme of How the Wealthy Can Control Others.

“If Filippo and Carrie were in league together, then the mobile phone was not insurance for her at all. It was insurance for me. To make sure that I, the person staying behind coping with the fallout, didn’t get convicted of murder.”

Because Lo demands that Carrie turn herself in so that Lo isn’t convicted of Carrie’s crime, Carrie makes sure that Lo’s name is cleared. The phone with evidence of Pieter’s involvement in the murder is her final gift to Lo before disappearing with her lover. It represents their bond: Carrie isn’t going to prison, but she makes sure that her best friend doesn’t go to prison either.