Steve Cavanagh | Kill For Me, Kill For You

Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read Kill for Me, Kill for You, I suggest you turn back now.

The Reveal:

“Wendy” and Amanda made a “strangers on a train” pact to kill the men who killed each other’s daughters. Wendy told Amanda that she’d killed Crone, and that Amanda needed to kill Quinn that night before the police came looking for her. Amanda injured Quinn but didn’t kill him. Wendy disappeared and Amanda found out that Crone was still alive.

In Ruth’s timeline, she thought she saw the Blue-Eyed Man (her attacker) in a hotel restaurant. Scott took her back to their room, but decided to go follow the man to see if he really was after Ruth. When the man noticed Scott following him, there was a fight and Scott had to kill him to save himself. He and Ruth left the state. It came out that the man Scott killed wasn’t the Blue-Eyed Man, but he was also involved in shady dealings. Ruth had another episode where she thought the TV presenter was the stalker, and Scott realized he had killed someone over an episode of psychosis from Ruth. He called the police, turned himself in, and then jumped off the balcony.

Amanda went back to Quinn’s house to search for clues as to who Wendy really was. As she was running away from the police she was picked up by a man named Billy. Billy claimed that “Wendy” had done the same to him–assumed a false name, got close to him, and convinced him to carry out a “strangers on a train” pact.

Wendy was really Ruth. Ruth’s scenes weren’t occurring at the same time as Amanda’s; they occurred in November 2007 while Amanda’s were in November 2018. After Scott killed the wrong man and then himself in guilt, Ruth was going around the country convincing other people to kill blue-eyed men for her. Amanda and Billy tracked her down just in time to stop her from killing another blue-eyed man.

In the UK version, Scott was alive. Amanda and Billy located Ruth by talking to Scott and Scott led them to Jack.

In the US version, Billy had already researched another case where the murderer claimed a woman had manipulated him into killing the victim. When he showed Amanda the research and she saw a picture of the victim, she realized how similar he looked to Quinn. An image search and some key terms led them to an article that identified Ruth. Ruth had been tried for the murder of Patrick Travers (Scott’s victim) but was found not guilty due to temporary insanity. She then spent seven years in a psych hospital. Amanda and Billy talked to Dr. Marin, who treated Ruth during her time there. He had the number on file for Jack and gave him a call.

Jack had given Ruth her fake IDs, so he gave the info to Amanda. Billy had his PI see if he could find anything on any of the identities, and the PI got them an address and a car. At that address, they arrived in time to see Ruth get into her car to go kill the next person. Billy followed her upstairs to confront her.

The Ending:

Billy was the first blue-eyed man who had broken into Ruth’s house. He realized Ruth was hunting him and decided to track her down and kill her, using her own ploy against her. When he and Amanda tracked Ruth to the apartment, Billy provoked Ruth by admitting who he was (and taking out his colored contacts), then calling Dr. Marin to show him that Ruth was experiencing the same delusions as before. Ruth was presumably re-committed.

I don’t think it was ever explained why Billy originally attacked Ruth, or why he didn’t kill her that time. He said Ruth caused him to have to continue his work elsewhere–presumably meaning serial killing–but this was a bit underdeveloped.

At the end of the book Billy helpfully killed Crone for Amanda and wrote her a letter to explain and to apologize for lying to her. His letter said that Crone admitted to killing Amanda’s daughter. This gave Amanda the peace she needed to move on.

I hope these Kill For Me, Kill For You spoilers were helpful.