Watching You: A Novel

Watching You (2018) is a psychological thriller set in Bristol, England, by the bestselling British author Lisa Jewell. The text explores themes such as Fantasies of Adulthood, Social Appearances/Deceptive Façades, and Complex Identities and the Power of Labels.

This guide refers to the eBook, published by Atria Books in 2018.

Content Warning: This novel includes domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, the sexual abuse of minors, bullying, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

The novel begins as Detective Rose Pelham examines the scene of a murder on March 24, 2017. The victim is Nicola Fitzwilliam, but the text initially conceals her identity, leaving open the possibility that the body belongs to any one of the three members of the Fitzwilliam family. A third-person narrative, the text primarily moves between three point-of-view (POV) characters: Joey Mullen, Freddie Fitzwilliam, and Jenna Tripp. The three characters are primarily connected by the way that each of them fixates on a fourth character: Tom Fitzwilliam, Freddie’s father and the victim, Nicola’s, husband.

The main storyline starts before the murder, on January 2. Joey Mullen is a 27-year-old woman who has recently moved back to Bristol with her new husband, Alfie Butters, after the death of her mother. The couple moves in with Joey’s brother, Jack Mullen, and his wife Rebecca, intending to live there while they save money and look for jobs. Joey’s fantasy of a new, adult life doesn’t survive the daily grind, and she loses herself in escapist fantasies about Tom Fitzwilliam, a charismatic and much older neighbor with a wife, Nicola, and a child. He returns her sexual interest, and they make plans to have sex in a hotel room. Once there, Joey realizes that her supposed grand passion is just an “itch” or impulse, a way for her to avoid thinking about her general frustration with life and suspicion that she married too hastily. When Tom arrives, Joey further discovers that either Nicola physically abuses Tom or their relationship is mutually abusive. Joey’s idealization of Tom as an attractive man in command of his life is exposed, and she understands that each of them has projected their desire for escape and salvation on the other. They do not consummate the affair, but Joey’s known obsession makes her the primary suspect for Nicola’s murder.

Jenna Tripp is a student at the school where Tom currently works as head teacher. She lives with her mother, Frances, after her parents’ divorce and contends with Frances’s mental health condition. Frances believes that she is a targeted individual (TI) subjected to gang stalking by her neighbors and the government. She particularly suspects Tom of leading other locals in surveillance and harassment. She claims that Tom has targeted her due to an incident she witnessed on a past family vacation. Jenna initially dismisses the idea as part of her mother’s delusions but then remembers the vacation, a coach tour in the Lake District when Jenna was little. The Fitzwilliams were also members of the tour, and, one day, a woman attacked Tom, shouting about Viva. Jenna begins to suspect Tom of sexual misconduct with former students, a fear that gains urgency as her best friend Bess gushes about her crush on the head teacher. Bess then has a pregnancy scare and won’t give Jenna details, prompting Jenna to connect with Freddie, Tom’s son, whom she’s seen around the neighborhood. Together, they research the past incident, discovering that Tom was questioned and let go in connection with the suicide of a student, Viva Hart, two decades earlier. Convinced of the worst, Jenna confronts Bess, who is appalled by her friend’s suspicions. She reveals that her meetings with the teacher concerned Jenna and her troubles at home. Tom wished to know if Bess’s family could take in Jenna for the remainder of the school year if her mother was hospitalized. Jenna later thanks Tom for his help navigating the system.

Freddie Fitzwilliam is the lonely, resentful son of Nicola and Tom. He spends his days spying on the neighborhood, particularly teenage girls, in an attempt to better understand people. Freddie insists that his photography isn’t voyeurism, but he becomes uncomfortable with it, particularly after someone accesses his files. He also develops an interest in a girl, Romola, and she inspires him to recover a repressed memory of being diagnosed with autism, which gives him a fresh context for his social difficulties. Freddie resents the constant moves necessitated by Tom’s job as a “superhead,” a head teacher who specializes in short (two-year) stints at struggling schools. He also resents his mother’s singular focus on his father and worries that Tom physically abuses Nicola due to overheard sounds of violence coming from their bedroom. When Jenna approaches him, he agrees that Tom could be a sexual predator and admits to simultaneously thinking his father is wonderful and that he might be evil. After his mother’s murder, he reevaluates both of his parents, learning about Nicola’s violent tendencies and history as a bully. He decides to research his late mother’s history. While going through her belongings, he finds a tied bundle of hair that connects Nicola to Viva’s death and implies that it was murder rather than suicide.

The murderer proves to be Rebecca, Joey’s sister-in-law, a figure frequently relegated to the background and never seen interacting with any of the Fitzwilliams. Rebecca was Viva’s older sister. After the suicide, she found Viva’s diary, which detailed both her infatuation with Tom and her intense bullying at the hands of Nicola. After encountering them in the Lake District, she stalked the couple online and moved close when they came to Bristol, intending to kill Nicola and frame Tom. Her purpose was strengthened when she hacked into the Fitzwilliams’ files and found Freddie’s pictures of teenage girls, mistakenly attributing them to Tom.

While the main narrative starts before the murder, interview transcripts from the later investigation are interwoven from the beginning of the story to its conclusion, several months after the investigation has ended.