“I’m looking out over glorious San Francisco and I have my service revolver pressed against the side of my temple.”

The novel opens on the darkest moment of Lindsay’s life as she contemplates suicide in the face of a great loss. This moment warns the reader that something dreadful will bring Lindsay to this desperate place before novel’s end.

“What is the worst thing anyone has ever done? Phillip Campbell asked himself again, heart pounding in his chest.”

The person wearing the mask of Phillip Campbell ponders this question before each murder; the act of killing a bride and groom soon after their nuptials appears to be the answer to this question. It is revealed later that this is the first line of Nicholas Jenks’s first novel, Always a Bridesmaid.

“There comes a point in everybody’s life when you realize the stakes have suddenly changed. The carefree ride of your life slams into a stone wall; all those years of merely bouncing along, life taking you where you want to go, abruptly end. In my job, I see this moment forced on people all the time. Welcome to mine.”

Told that she has aplastic anemia, Lindsay immediately recognizes that this diagnosis is going to change everything. However, the illness’s full effects on Lindsay are yet to be revealed.