The Kind Worth Killing: A Novel

Lily has a flashback to when she was 13 years old and her mother invited a painter named Chet to stay with them at Monk’s House, in Connecticut. Lily’s parents were constantly inviting houseguests to stay with them to keep up with their partying lifestyle. Lily’s father David Kintner is an English novelist, and her mother Sharon is an artist. During the summer, Lily spends her time swimming in the pool, but when Chet arrives, he makes her uncomfortable in her bathing suit. After this interaction, Lily stops swimming.

A few weeks later, David leaves Monk’s House with his new mistress. After David leaves, Sharon throws a large party. Lily falls asleep but wakes up a few hours later to someone coming into her room. She realizes that it is Chet, and she pretends to be asleep. She thinks that if she tries to scream, he will kill her. Chet molests her and then masturbates by her bed. Lily pretends to sleep. After he leaves, Lily wedges a chair under the door handle of her room. Lily decides not to tell her mother what happened. She decides to resolve the issue on her own.

Now sitting next to one another on the plane, Lily asks Ted if he really wants to kill his wife. When Ted hesitates, Lily tells him about her outlook on morality and murder. Lily justifies murder if the person murdered is a bad person. Lily tells Ted that Miranda is going to die someday anyway—killing her would just speed along the process and rid the world of a bad person. Lily takes a nap and Ted realizes that he agrees with Lily’s morality. When Lily wakes up, Ted continues to talk to her about potentially murdering his wife.

Lily thinks about how she had a cat named Bess when she was little. Lily loved Bess, and one day she saw a feral cat attack Bess. Lily scared the cat away, but she knew that the feral cat would return to kill Bess. Later, when she saw the feral cat, she smashed a large stone onto the cat’s head, killing it. Lily hated the smell of the dying cat, so she left it in the woods.

Later in her childhood, after Chet assaulted Lily, she cannot stop thinking about how she killed the feral cat. Lily starts sunbathing outside where she knows that Chet can see her. One day, he comes outside and talks to her. Lily pretends that she does not remember the molestation, and he relaxes around her. David returns and Lily’s parents make up. One night, Lily goes up to Chet’s apartment and knocks on his door, asking him for help with something outside.

In the present, after their flight, Ted and Lily decide to meet in a week at the Concord River Inn in Concord, Massachusetts. If either of them changes their mind about murdering Miranda, Lily says they should not show up and then they can go on with their lives as if they never met each other.

A week later, Ted arrives at the Concord River Inn. Lily arrives late, and Ted feels relieved when he sees her. Ted tells her that he still wants to kill Miranda, and Lily offers to help him. Ted asks Lily what she will get out of helping a stranger kill his wife. Lily responds that if someone is a bad person, they do not deserve to live longer. Ted asks her how many people she has killed, and Lily promises that she will tell him everything after they kill Miranda.

In a flashback, Lily leads Chet through the woods and explains that the meadow is behind an old farm that no one lives in anymore. She leads him to an old well and pulls off the well cover. She says that she wants to find out what is at the end of the rope going down the well. Chet kneels and pulls on the rope, which Lily covered in shampoo to make it difficult for him to grip. Chet leans into the well to pull the rope up just as Lily shoves him. As he falls, one of his feet catches in between the rocks and he hangs there, calling to her for help. Lily shoves his foot and listens as he hits the well bottom with a sickening sound. Lily takes a penlight out of her pocket and sees that Chet’s neck sticks out at a weird angle. Lily picks up a large rock and drops it down on Chet’s head, just in case. Then, she gathers more rocks and drops them down the well until they cover Chet’s body.

Lily returns to Chet’s apartment and packs up his belongings. In the morning, Lily carries Chet’s duffel bag and paintings to the meadow. After dropping everything down the well, Lily covers everything with more rocks, then replaces the well cover and covers it with loose grass. A few weeks later, Sharon tells Lily that Chet left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. Lily realizes that she got away with murder.

In the present day, Ted tells Miranda that he is going to visit her in Kennewick for a week. Ted meets Miranda in the hotel bar and the next morning, they drive to see the progress on the house. As Miranda walks him around the house, Ted feels angry about the large amount of his money Miranda has spent on the house. Brad arrives and Ted invites him to have drinks with them at a local bar called Cooley’s. Brad does not meet them for drinks, and Ted wonders if this is because Miranda texted him not to come. The next morning, Ted goes for a walk on the bluffs and when he returns, he sees Brad’s truck in the driveway. He decides to invite Brad for drinks again.

Lily has a flashback to when she was a freshman at Mather College. At college, she meets Eric Washburn, a junior, at the library. Eric knows David’s novels and he invites her to a party at his literary fraternity called St. Dunstan’s. Over the next few weeks, Eric continues to invite her. Although Eric has a girlfriend named Faith, Lily falls in love with him. At the end of freshman year, Lily goes to St. Dunstan’s before she leaves for the summer. At St. Dunstan’s, Eric tells her that he broke up with Faith. Later, Lily and Eric have sex in his room.

Since her parents recently got divorced, Lily spends the summer calming her mother down over the rumors of her father’s new engagement. After the summer, Lily moves back to Mathers. Eric comes to her dorm room and takes her back to his room at St. Dunstan’s. He tells her how much he loved and missed her over the summer, and Lily believes him.