Brynn's Chapter Two: Summary, Analysis, and Key Moments

⚠️ 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

Brynn Gallagher sits across from Carly, the host of the true-crime podcast Motive, pitching the unsolved murder of her former teacher, Mr. Larkin. She keeps her eyes on a newspaper photo of him wearing his signature lemon tie, remembering his motto: when life hands you lemons, make lemon cake. He hated lemonade and loved cake, a small quirk that made him memorable.

Brynn lays out the prevailing theory: a drifter had been hanging around downtown, swearing and yelling at people. One day he came to Saint Ambrose and screamed at kids during recess, so Mr. Larkin called the police and had him arrested. The man spent a few days in jail, and Mr. Larkin died almost immediately after his release. The drifter disappeared afterward, so everyone assumed he killed Mr. Larkin in retaliation.

Brynn admits she used to believe this story. In eighth grade, the idea of a violent stranger passing through town was almost comforting—it meant the danger was gone, and that the danger wasn't her neighbors or the people she'd known her whole life. But after binging a season of Motive to prepare for this interview, she realized nobody ever applied that kind of journalistic scrutiny to Mr. Larkin's case. Now the drifter explanation feels too tidy.

Carly notes the case received almost no media coverage—just the local paper and a couple of brief mentions in the Boston Globe. The local article was titled