Chapter 25 Summary, Analysis, and Key Study Points
⚠️ 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
The chapter opens with Adrian making apple-cinnamon pancakes in Mallory's kitchen before driving four hundred miles to Akron to interview Dolores Campbell, Annie Barrett's elderly daughter. Mallory tries to talk him out of it, but Adrian insists on chasing their last lead, taking the drawings and library book with him.
Mallory spends the morning packing, folding her new dresses into a ten-gallon trash bag—a 'sober-living suitcase' from her Safe Harbor days—and takes one last run around Spring Brook. She reflects on how much she'll miss the neighborhood, contrasting it with Russell's condo in Norristown, surrounded by highways and an Amazon fulfillment center.
The farewell pool party begins at three. Caroline hangs streamers and a banner reading 'thank you mallory,' and everyone pretends Mallory is leaving by choice. Mallory swims with Ted and Teddy in silly races Teddy always wins. She notices Caroline never enters the pool; Teddy explains the chlorine makes her skin itchy.
Dinner is an elaborate spread of grilled shrimp, citrus-seafood salad, and steamed vegetables. Caroline has clearly put great effort into the meal, and Mallory briefly wonders if she might be reconsidering. But when Caroline says she's glad they can end the summer on a high note, Mallory realizes nothing has changed.
After dinner, Teddy and Mallory float on the raft and play their favorite games one last time. Teddy asks how far Norristown is, and Mallory promises they can be pen pals, though privately she doubts she'll ever see him again. Then Teddy makes a strange claim: the family drove from Barcelona to New Jersey through an underwater tunnel with walls thick enough to protect against sea monsters. Mallory insists that's impossible, but Teddy is adamant and tells her to ask his dad.
Mallory's phone rings—Adrian calling—but she misses it. She sees two photos: an elderly black woman in a wheelchair, and the same woman with a black man in his fifties. Adrian calls back and puts Curtis Campbell, Annie Barrett's grandson, on the line.
Curtis tells the true story. Annie Barrett was born in England, not Hungary. She moved to Spring Brook after World War II to live with her cousin George on the affluent east side of Hayden's Glen. Willie, a Black man, lived on the west side in a neighborhood called Corrigan and pumped gas at a Texaco. In 1948, a Black man couldn't risk acknowledging a white woman's greeting, but Annie, raised in a seaside town with Caribbean migrants, wasn't afraid. They became friendly, then more than friendly, with Willie sneaking through the forest at night to visit her.
When Annie told George she was pregnant and planned to elope with Willie to Ohio, George was furious. Rather than face the shame of his cousin running off with a Black man, he staged a murder scene: he bought two buckets of pig's blood from a butcher, splashed it around the cabin, and called the police. The town held a manhunt and dragged nets through the creek, but there was never a body. Annie lived to eighty-one on a farm near Akron, raising two children and enjoying four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Curtis notes that people in Corrigan always knew the truth; affluent Spring Brook preferred the ghost story.
After the call, Detective Briggs appears in Mitzi's yard and confirms Curtis's story—her grandfather grew up with Willie and fished with him. Then she shares two revelations. First, Mitzi's cell phone contained an unfinished text in which she said she was wrong about something and that 'Anya isn't a name'—the message cut off mid-sentence. Second, the coroner ruled Mitzi's death drug-related: acute lung injury from a heroin overdose, likely Thursday night or early Friday morning.
After Briggs leaves, Mallory walks Teddy inside and returns to her cottage, collapsing on her bed. The pieces of the puzzle seem more scattered than ever, but one thing is certain: the Maxwells have been lying to her.
Key Events
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Adrian drives to Akron to interview Dolores Campbell, Annie Barrett's daughter
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Mallory packs her belongings and attends her farewell pool party
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Teddy claims the family drove from Barcelona through an underwater tunnel
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Curtis Campbell reveals Annie Barrett was British, not murdered, and eloped with Willie to Ohio
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Cousin George staged a murder scene with pig's blood to cover up the interracial elopement
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Detective Briggs confirms the story and reveals Mitzi's unfinished text about Anya
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Mitzi died of a heroin overdose, not natural causes
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Mallory concludes the Maxwells have been lying to her
Character Development
Mallory spends the chapter in emotional limbo, trying to accept her departure while still hoping for a reprieve. Her realization that Caroline's elaborate dinner doesn't change anything shows her growing ability to read the Maxwells' behavior. By the end, she's forced to confront that her entire theory about Annie Barrett was wrong—and that the real mystery may be closer to home.
Adrian demonstrates his commitment to Mallory by driving four hundred miles on a lead he admits is probably futile. His persistence pays off spectacularly, unraveling the Annie Barrett legend entirely.
Teddy continues to drop hints that he knows more than he lets on. His insistence on the underwater tunnel from Barcelona is the chapter's most unsettling moment, suggesting the Maxwells' cover story about their trip has holes. His whispered question about whether they're 'getting arrested' reveals his awareness that something is wrong.
Detective Briggs emerges as a key ally, confirming the true history of Annie Barrett and sharing crucial evidence about Mitzi's death and unfinished text.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Legend versus historical truth: The Annie Barrett story is revealed to be a seventy-year-old fabrication designed to protect a family's reputation. Curtis notes that the truth was always known in Corrigan, the Black neighborhood, while affluent Spring Brook preferred the ghost story.
Racial prejudice and hidden history: The chapter exposes how racism shaped the town's narrative. George's decision to stage a murder rather than acknowledge his cousin's interracial marriage reflects the era's intolerance, and Briggs notes that some colleagues still resist the truth.
Family secrets and cover-ups: The Maxwells' deception becomes increasingly apparent. Teddy's underwater tunnel story and his fear of arrest suggest the family is hiding something about their Barcelona trip.
Faked death and staged crime scene: George's use of pig's blood to simulate a murder is a literal example of constructing a false narrative—a motif that echoes the Maxwells' own fabrications.
Cryptic unfinished message: Mitzi's truncated text—'Anya isn't a name'—is the chapter's most tantalizing clue, suggesting the ghost's identity is something other than a person's name.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 25 is the turning point of the novel's central mystery. It definitively dismantles the Annie Barrett ghost theory that has driven Mallory's investigation, forcing her—and the reader—to reconsider everything. The revelation that Mitzi was trying to tell Mallory something about 'Anya' before dying of an overdose transforms the mystery from supernatural to criminal. And Teddy's underwater tunnel claim, combined with Mallory's final realization that the Maxwells have been lying, sets up the novel's climax by pointing suspicion squarely at the family.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does George stage Annie's murder rather than let her elope with Willie?
George is a deacon and a pillar of the community in an affluent, predominantly white neighborhood. In 1948, the social cost of admitting his cousin had run off with a Black man was, in his view, worse than the cost of a murder investigation. He bought pig's blood from a butcher, staged a ransacked cabin, and reported a crime that never happened. The town's manhunt found no body because there never was one.
2. What does Mitzi's unfinished text suggest about the mystery?
Mitzi's text reads 'We need to talk. I was wrong about before. Anya isn't a name'—cut off mid-sentence. This suggests Mitzi had discovered something that contradicted her earlier beliefs and was trying to warn Mallory. The phrasing implies 'Anya' is not a person's name but something else entirely—possibly an acronym, a word, or a code. Combined with Mitzi's heroin overdose, the text suggests she was silenced before she could share her discovery.
3. Why does Teddy's underwater tunnel story alarm Mallory?
Teddy insists the family drove from Barcelona to New Jersey through an underwater tunnel with walls thick enough to protect against sea monsters. This is geographically impossible, and Mallory knows they flew. The claim suggests either Teddy is misremembering or the Maxwells have told him a cover story about their trip. His later whispered question about whether they're 'getting arrested' reinforces that Teddy knows something is wrong and fears the police are involved.
Navigation
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