Quinn
The new neighbor at number seven.
Quinn Calloway moves into number seven on Wisteria Court after it has sat empty for four months. She arrives with neatly packed boxes and almost no furniture. She is tall and still, with dirty blonde hair and dark eyes, and Claire guesses she's in her early thirties. She tells people she does consulting work remotely and that she lived in Boston for the last three years.
She studied the street for fourteen months before she moved in. The first thing she unpacks is a journal, which she sets on a shelf with the spine facing out.
What we learn early
- She bought number seven through a third party, and the Lowells felt rushed (Chapter 4).
- Her online history starts four years ago. Claire finds no trace of her in Boston.
- She tells Margaret over banana bread that she lost her sister some years ago, knowing Margaret will tell Claire.
- Every morning at 7:43 she walks out with a travel mug and raises it to Claire.
Spoilers ahead
The rest of this page covers the whole book, ending included.
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Who she really is
Quinn was born Rebecca Elizabeth Mercer. She is Sarah's younger sister, the one Sarah called Beth. Four years ago she legally changed her name in Ohio to Quinn Elizabeth Calloway, after Calloway Street, where Sarah's apartment was. She spent three years working in victim advocacy in Columbus, mostly on cases of coercive control. She has had Sarah's journal since she cleared out Sarah's apartment the week after she died. Eleven years ago she got off a bus five days too late.
What she does in the book
- She orders a book to number six as an excuse to get inside, and leaves her rinsed cup beside Claire's (Chapter 10).
- She drives six hours to meet Peter at a roadside diner. He already knows her face, refuses her money, and later mails her his seven reports (Chapters 17 and 21).
- She finds Tom's sealed letter inside the house drawing and reads it at 1:40 in the morning (Chapters 26 and 27).
- When Claire burns the November pages of the journal, Quinn recites them from memory, then holds Claire's burned hand under cold water and promises nobody will hear it from her (Chapter 29).
Where she ends up
Quinn keeps her word. She sells number seven and leaves in March with one box holding the journal and the photo frame. Before she goes, she calls Sarah's mother, who took her in as a girl, and asks if she can come. Chapter 31, the only chapter she narrates in first person, is told as Beth.