You Deserve to Know

Aggie Blum Thompson’s You Deserve to Know (2025) is a domestic noir thriller that explores the dark secrets hidden within an affluent suburban community. Set in East Bethesda, Maryland, the novel follows three seemingly close-knit families whose lives are shattered when one of the husbands is murdered. The investigation unravels a web of infidelity, extortion, and long-buried crimes, forcing the women to confront the sinister truths about their friendships and their spouses. A former crime reporter for newspapers like The Washington Post, Thompson has authored several other domestic thrillers set in the Washington, DC, area, including I Don’t Forgive You and Such a Lovely Family.

The novel employs an autofiction narrative frame, presenting the story as a best-selling book written by one of the characters. This structure allows the novel to explore key themes of The Subjective Nature of Truth and Narrative, The Deceptive Facade of Domesticity, and The Corrosive Nature of Insecurity and Envy in Friendship. The narrative examines how the need to project a perfect image can foster the very resentments and deceptions that lead to violence. The story’s structure, which combines a present-day investigation with flashbacks, creates a multilayered mystery where every character’s version of events is suspect.

This guide refers to the 2025 Forge e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, physical abuse, illness or death, substance use, disordered eating, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

An excerpt from a Dateline interview introduces a best-selling book, You Deserve to Know, which the author describes as “autofiction” (1) based on a series of crimes in her suburban neighborhood. She defends her version of events, acknowledging poetic license but insisting the story’s essence is true. The subsequent narrative is presented as the content of this book.

The story begins with three neighboring families, the Crowders (Aimee and Scott), the Greco-Kings (Lisa and Marcus), and the Khourys (Gwen and Anton), gathering for their weekly Friday night barbecue in East Bethesda, Maryland. Aimee is upset after an argument with Lisa, who criticized the latter for letting her nine-year-old daughter, Noa, visit an elderly woman named Cathy. Aimee met Cathy when Cathy hired Aimee to provide some landscaping services and she sees Cathy as potentially a positive influence for Noa. Aimee is privately worried about Noa’s recent struggles at school and has had her daughter undergo psychological assessment. As the party ends, Anton (who has been drinking heavily) corners Aimee and whispers, “You deserve to know” (12). Aimee is confused by this statement.

After the couples have returned to their own homes, Gwen discovers a notebook in which Anton describes a writer having an affair. Recognizing details from a recent trip Anton took and recalling a suspicious credit card charge from a restaurant on that trip, Gwen confronts him, and he admits, “I fucked up, Gwen” (20).

The next morning, police come to Gwen’s house and tell her that her husband is dead. Detective Jay Salazar informs Gwen that Anton’s body was found in an alley behind the Villain & Saint bar and that his death is being investigated as a homicide. Aimee is horrified to learn about Anton’s death. Aimee then sees her doorbell camera footage, which shows an injured Anton arriving at her house late the previous night, her husband Scott leaving with him, and Scott returning alone an hour later. Aimee asks Scott about the video and he recounts his version of Friday night: After Aimee was asleep, Anton came to their door. He was drunk, so Scott walked him home, and then went to a local bar for a drink. Subsequently, Gwen admits to Aimee that she and Anton had an argument the previous night. Gwen tells Aimee that the argument occurred because she suspected Anton was cheating, but readers are aware that Gwen is not telling her friend the whole story, and that Anton disclosed something else to his wife prior to his death.

Meanwhile, flashbacks have revealed important events that occurred long before the murder. As soon as Gwen and Anton moved to the neighborhood, Lisa became intensely jealous of Gwen and feared that the latter would steal Aimee from her. Eventually, Lisa decided to seduce Anton as a way to hurt Gwen. In January, Lisa and Anton began having an affair and continued their secret relationship for months. Alongside the affair, Lisa began to resent Scott and feared he might drive a wedge between she and Aimee.

On Sunday, Detective Salazar questions Scott, who invents a friend from the gym named Jon Block as his alibi for the bar. Aimee sees a text from “Jon Block” on Scott’s phone and follows him to a café, where she discovers Block is a private investigator. Scott claims the PI is for a work issue. Later, Aimee discovers two separate $50,000 withdrawals from their accounts. Scott confesses he was “scammed” (135) and hired the PI, promising to explain everything that night. However, on Sunday night, Scott goes to pick up Noa from Cathy’s house and does not return. Cathy drives Noa home herself, stating that Scott never came to her house. Aimee is becoming more alarmed by the possibility that Scott could somehow be involved in Anton’s death. Alongside these events, Gwen happens upon what she considers to be proof that Lisa and Anton were having an affair and openly accuses Lisa. Lisa denies these claims, Marcus (Lisa’s husband) sides with her, and Aimee doesn’t know what to believe.

By Tuesday, there is still no sign or word of Scott. Aimee confronts Jon Block again, demanding to know why her husband hired him. Block explains that someone was extorting Scott, so Scott hired Block to investigate; however, Block has not been able to uncover the identity of the extortioner. When Block reveals that the extortioner sent emails through a server located at the university where Anton worked, Aimee suspects that Anton was extorting her husband.

The flashbacks provide further context into the extortion plot. Months earlier, in her quest to get revenge on Scott, Lisa began researching his background. She uncovered that Scott’s real name is Michael Finch; he changed his identity because as a teenager, he was connected to the disappearance of another teenage boy, Dexter Kohl. Upon learning that Lisa is researching Michael and Dexter, Dexter’s mother contacted Lisa to share her theory that Michael is responsible for Dexter’s death (although a body was never found). Lisa shared this information with Anton and the two of them planned to extort Scott with the threat of exposing his identity. However, Anton became fascinated with Dexter’s mother, planning to use the story for his next book, and Lisa became increasingly fearful that Anton was going to expose their secret plot.

Aimee, unaware of this context about Lisa and Anton’s extortion, confronts Gwen. Gwen admits that on Friday night, when she accused Anton of being unfaithful, he told her that he was extorting Scott (though not with what information). Gwen also shares the secret she has been hiding from her friend: Anton believed Cathy (the woman Noa has been visiting) was somehow connected to Scott’s secret and that it was dangerous for Noa to be spending time with her. Aimee is furious that Gwen didn’t share this information sooner. Aimee and Gwen go to Cathy’s house together, where they are startled to learn that Cathy doesn’t actually live there. She has been cat-sitting for the homeowner and posed as the owner to Aimee. Cathy’s whereabouts are now unknown, and the two women find Scott’s car parked in a barn on the property.

On Wednesday, further clues lead Aimee to believe Cathy may live in a nearby town. She drives out to search for her; Gwen accompanies her and reveals information that is new to both women. Gwen found notebooks in which Anton wrote about his interviews with Dexter’s mother and has pieced together the context about Scott being Michael Finch, Dexter’s mysterious disappearance, and that “Cathy” is Cathy Stocker, Dexter’s mother. Aimee and Gwen are able to locate the woman they know as Cathy at her home, and she reveals that she is not Dexter’s mother at all—she is Scott’s mother, Jen Finch.

Dexter’s mother, the true Cathy Stocker, lived in the same small community as Jen and word that she was sharing her suspicions about her son’s death quickly leaked out. Although Jen tried to warn her, Cathy died under suspicious circumstances about a month earlier. Jen deduced that whoever killed Cathy to prevent investigation of Dexter’s death might target her son, Scott/Michael as well. Even though they had been estranged for years, she travelled to Maryland, posing as Cathy.

Scott arrives and confesses his true past to Aimee. Twenty-eight years ago, he and Dexter Kohl robbed drug dealers, and Dexter was killed during the robbery. Scott/Michael fled to avoid a felony murder charge. He is unwilling to turn himself in and when he began receiving threatening messages, he started withdrawing money and preparing to flee the country. He is still planning to do so. Furious, Aimee leaves and calls the cops to tell them Scott’s location.

Upon returning home, Gwen is confronted by Lisa, who asks invasive questions about Scott and Aimee. Gwen realizes that Lisa knows information (that Scott was fleeing a murder charge) that she could only have access to if she had already been researching Scott’s past. Lisa admits that she and Anton were both involved in the extortion.

Flashbacks have revealed that on the night of the murder, Lisa learned that Noa was visiting someone named Cathy Stocker; however, since Lisa knew that Cathy was already dead, whoever Noa was visiting was an imposter. When Lisa shared this information with Anton, he was increasingly desperate to tell Scott and/or Aimee the truth, but Lisa continued to insist on secrecy.

Lisa tells Gwen that when she saw Anton following Scott to the bar, she felt sure he was about to reveal their secret, and she implies that she killed him to prevent him from doing so. Lisa strikes Gwen in the head with a heavy candlestick, and the two women begin a physical struggle. In an effort to defend herself, Gwen ends up hitting Lisa in the head with the same candlestick and killing her.

Aimee learns that Lisa is dead and that police believe Lisa killed Anton. Scott turns himself in and is extradited to California, where he cooperates for a plea deal. Aimee decides to stand by him and moves away with their children.

The Epilogue resolves the frame story. A year later, Gwen is the author of a successful work of autofiction titled You Deserve to Know and is living in Miami with Marcus. Aimee visits Gwen and gradually draws out the truth by lulling her friend into believing it is safe to confide. Gwen reveals herself as the true villain behind the extortion and murder plots: She admits that she was the one who discovered Scott’s past and orchestrated the extortion plot herself. Her affair with Marcus began months before the murder, and they conspired to have their spouses killed. Gwen sent Marcus to murder Anton. Aimee, in turn, reveals she is wearing a wire, and police arrive to arrest Gwen.