Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Briggs Family Secrets Uncovered

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chloe and Aaron visit Dianne Briggs in her cluttered, smoke-filled home to ask about Sophie, Daniel’s sister who disappeared twenty years ago. Dianne describes Sophie as beautiful and intelligent, pointing to a lone school portrait that feels like a shrine. She explains that Sophie was meant to escape their poor, violent household. When Aaron asks about her husband and son, Dianne admits both have tempers; her husband Earl is physically abusive, and Daniel used to try to protect her but eventually became desensitized. She reveals Daniel’s full name and says he seemed indifferent to Sophie’s disappearance, even smirking during news reports. She confesses she always wondered if Daniel had something to do with it. After Chloe asks to look around, she enters Daniel’s boyhood bedroom—untouched for years. She finds a copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the same book Daniel once praised. Inside, she discovers old newspaper clippings with the headline: “Richard Davis Named as Breaux Bridge Serial Killer, Bodies Still Unfound” and a photo of her father.

Key Events

Dianne Briggs describes Sophie as a “wonderful girl” and shows her framed school portrait.
Dianne reveals that Daniel has a temper, inherited from his father Earl, and that he stopped trying to protect her from abuse.
She admits she suspected Daniel was involved in Sophie’s disappearance, citing his smirking during news coverage and her “mother’s instinct.”
Chloe asks to search Daniel’s room; Dianne allows it, noting the police found nothing twenty years ago.
Chloe enters the bedroom and finds a copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with a gap in the pages.
Inside the gap are newspaper clippings about Richard Davis, Chloe’s father, being named the Breaux Bridge serial killer.
Chloe realizes Daniel has been hiding this evidence for two decades.

Character Development

Chloe Davis: Her trust in Daniel shatters as she sees his childhood environment and hears his mother’s suspicions. The discovery of the clippings forces her to confront that Daniel may have known about her father’s crimes all along.
Dianne Briggs: A passive, abused mother who suspects her son but never acted on it. Her detached demeanor and chain-smoking reflect years of numbness. She seems unaware of Chloe’s identity but offers a chilling warning about Daniel.
Daniel Briggs: Although absent in the chapter, his manipulative nature is exposed through his mother’s testimony and the hidden clippings. The contrast between his pristine adult life and his derelict childhood highlights his deliberate reinvention — or concealment.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Duality and Reinvention: Daniel’s clean, successful present starkly contrasts with his messy, violent past. The clippings suggest he hasn’t truly escaped his origins but rather buried them.
Family Secrets: The Briggs household is built on abuse, denial, and unspoken truths. Dianne’s “mother’s instinct” hints at a deeper awareness she refuses to fully acknowledge.
Books as Receptacles: The novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil serves as a hiding place for evidence, mirroring how Daniel used the same book to leave a business card when he first met Chloe. Books become symbols of concealed truths.
The Shrine: Sophie’s single framed photo, staged alone, represents how she has been reduced to a static memory — a tool for manipulation rather than genuine grief.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is the turning point of the novel. Chloe’s investigation shifts from suspecting Cooper or other outsiders to zeroing in on Daniel. The discovery of the clippings directly ties Daniel to Chloe’s father’s case, implying Daniel may have been obsessed with Chloe or her family long before they met. It reframes every earlier interaction Daniel had with Chloe, particularly his choice of book, as calculated. The chapter also humanizes Dianne, showing the cycle of violence that shaped Daniel — but does not excuse his actions. Ultimately, it raises the stakes: Chloe is now alone with a man whose mother suspects him of murder and who has secretly collected evidence about her father.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Dianne believe Daniel may have been involved in Sophie’s disappearance?

Dianne says Daniel lied when she asked if he knew where Sophie was, and she caught him smirking during news reports about the case. She calls it a “mother’s instinct” despite having no concrete proof.

2. What does Chloe find in Daniel’s bedroom, and why is it significant?

She finds newspaper clippings about her father, Richard Davis, being named the Breaux Bridge serial killer. The clippings were hidden inside a copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil — the same book Daniel used to leave his business card when he first approached Chloe. This suggests Daniel has been secretly connected to Chloe’s past for years.

3. How does Chloe’s perception of Daniel change during this chapter?

She previously saw him as privileged and unblemished, but seeing his damaged childhood and hearing Dianne’s suspicions makes her realize he is also “damaged.” More disturbingly, she begins to suspect he has been hiding his true nature — just as he hides the clippings.