The Hunting Wives

The Hunting Wives Plot Summary

Introduction

Sophie O'Neill stares at the body floating in the pool, dark hair fanned around a pale face like seaweed. The image burns itself into her memory—tranquil, peaceful, almost beautiful. But that's not how it really happened. When they found her, she was face-down in muddy leaves, her back shredded by shotgun pellets. This is the story of how Sophie, a restless mother seeking escape from suburban monotony, becomes entangled with Margot Banks and her circle of wealthy, dangerous wives in small-town Texas. What begins as an intoxicating friendship spirals into obsession, betrayal, and murder. In Mapleton's gilded world of privilege and secrets, the hunting games these women play have nothing to do with skeet shooting—and everything to do with survival.

Chapter 1: The Seduction of Small-Town Boredom

Sophie O'Neill trades Chicago's chaos for the sleepy rhythms of Mapleton, Texas, hoping to find the slower life she craves with husband Graham and toddler Jack. But seven months into their new existence, the suffocating quiet has begun eating her alive. She fills her days with garden work and mommy blogs, but the hollow ache of boredom gnaws at her bones. Everything changes the morning she discovers Margot Banks on Facebook. Tagged in a charity event photo, Margot stands apart from the other socialites—raven hair swept back, diamond choker glittering, lips pressed in a smirk of pure irreverence. While other women beam vapid smiles, Margot's fuck-me eyes seem to mock the camera itself. Sophie finds herself studying those sculpted features, that perfect olive skin, returning to Margot's profile again and again like an addiction. The obsession deepens when Sophie sees Margot's Facebook comment on a children's theater fundraiser. While others gush about the "blessed day," Margot writes: "Yes, fun. But if one more person in this godforsaken town tells me to have a blessed day, I'm going to commit ritual suicide." Sophie nearly spits wine across her laptop screen. Finally, someone who gets it. Mapleton has transformed into a Jesus-infested bubble since Sophie's high school years here. Perfect strangers invite her to church services, claiming the Lord led them to ask. Yard signs proclaim faith in bold letters. Margot's sardonic voice cuts through the religious suffocation like oxygen in a vacuum. Sophie begins checking Facebook obsessively, hunting for posts where Margot appears, studying every photo, every comment, building a fantasy connection with this untouchable woman.

Chapter 2: Entering Margot's Dangerous Orbit

The garden party at the Banks estate pulses with old money and new tensions. Sophie arrives in a modest green dress, immediately outclassed by the mansion's sprawling grounds and glittering guests. Ancient oaks drip with fairy lights while uniformed staff serve oysters and champagne to Mapleton's elite. She spots Margot holding court behind the bathhouse, surrounded by three women who orbit her like satellites. Callie Jenkins, broad-shouldered with ash-blonde hair, watches Sophie with calculating eyes. Tina beams with friendly enthusiasm, while Jill Simmons—petite with cat-eye glasses—projects prim sexuality. When Margot finally notices Sophie approaching, her smoky gaze locks on with predatory interest. The champagne flows as Margot regales them with stories, her throaty laugh cutting through the humid night air. She moves like liquid mercury, commanding attention without effort. When she mentions their Friday night shooting club at her lake house, Sophie's pulse quickens. "We go out to my lake house and shoot skeet, sometimes target practice. Blow off some steam," Margot purrs, her breath electric against Sophie's neck. The invitation hangs in the air like a dare. Sophie nods robotically, willing to follow Margot anywhere. As the party winds down, she watches Margot glide through the crowd, every head turning in her wake. At the valet station, friend Erin appears with a warning that chills Sophie's wine-warmed blood: "Be careful. Margot Banks is not a nice person." But Sophie is already too far gone. The hook has been set, and she's swimming deeper into dangerous waters with every breath.

Chapter 3: The Missing Girl and Mounting Suspicions

The Hunting Wives gather each Friday at Margot's lake house, a rustic paradise where money talks and morality goes silent. Sophie learns to shoot skeet under Margot's tutelage, feeling the shotgun's brutal kick against her shoulder as orange discs explode in the twilight sky. The women drink martinis and share secrets, their conversations dancing around darker truths. At Jill's pool party, Sophie meets seventeen-year-old Abby Wilson—a cheerleader with amber skin and lettuce-green eyes, dating Jill's son Brad. The girl radiates innocence, a stark contrast to the predatory energy crackling between Margot and the teenage quarterback. Sophie watches Margot go topless by the pool, flaunting her perfect breasts while Brad devours her with hungry eyes. Abby's discomfort is palpable, but she says nothing. When Abby disappears after a dinner date with Brad, the town erupts in fear and speculation. Search parties comb the woods while her parents appear on television, eyes hollow with grief. Sophie follows the news obsessively, her stomach churning with unspoken dread. She remembers a text she glimpsed on Margot's phone: "Get rid of her." The Hunting Wives' dynamic shifts as suspicion creeps into their gilded world. Jill's usual composure cracks under the strain of having her son questioned by police. Tina gossips nervously about the investigation while Callie maintains her stone-faced loyalty to Margot. But beneath the surface, something poisonous festers. Sophie can taste it in the air—the metallic tang of secrets about to spill blood. Days stretch into a week with no sign of Abby. The cheerful facade of their Friday night gatherings begins to crumble as reality seeps through the cracks of their privileged bubble.

Chapter 4: Framed in Blood and Betrayal

Abby's body surfaces like a nightmare made flesh—discovered by a groundskeeper in the woods near the Hunting Wives' shooting range. A shotgun blast has torn through her back, leaving her crumpled among muddy leaves by the lake's rusty shoreline. The autopsy reveals she was two months pregnant, transforming her disappearance from tragic accident to brutal murder. Detective Flynn arrives at Sophie's door with his partner Wanda, their questions sharp as scalpels. Sophie's fingerprints match those found on the murder weapon—a revelation that stops her heart cold. Margot had insisted she use "Daddy's gun" that final Friday night, claiming it kicked less than the others. The manipulation cuts deep as Sophie realizes she's been perfectly framed. Under interrogation, the web of lies begins unraveling. Sophie admits to knowing about Margot's affair with Brad, about the text message demanding Abby's removal. But each revelation only tightens the noose around her neck. Flynn's kind eyes harden as Sophie's stories shift and change, her credibility evaporating like morning mist. The local newspaper destroys what remains of Sophie's life with screaming headlines about teenage sex triangles and prominent socialites. Her photo appears next to Margot's glamour shot, branding her as a person of interest in Abby's murder. Graham discovers the story over breakfast, his face cycling through confusion, betrayal, and disgust as he reads about Sophie's involvement with eighteen-year-old Jamie. By noon, Sophie's bags are packed and her marriage is in ruins. Graham's final words hit like physical blows: "Stay the fuck away from us for now. You could push me so far that you might lose your son."

Chapter 5: Drowning in Deception

Exiled to a sterile motel room, Sophie watches her life disintegrate from the sidelines. Erin refuses her calls, friends vanish like smoke, and Graham maintains radio silence except for brief, cold exchanges about Jack. The walls of her temporary prison close in as she realizes the full scope of her isolation. She drives to Margot's lake house seeking answers, desperate to understand why she's been sacrificed. The confrontation unfolds under blazing sun on the boat dock, where Margot lounges in a yellow bikini like nothing has changed. But when Sophie arrives, Callie emerges with a shotgun trained on her chest, the barrel unwavering until Margot intervenes. The afternoon dissolves into wine and heat-soaked confusion. Callie drugs Sophie again, the roofie hitting her system like a sledgehammer to the brain. Through the pharmaceutical haze, Margot's hands explore Sophie's body in the master bedroom, fulfilling fantasies that should bring pleasure but only deepen the nightmare. The sex feels like another manipulation, another move in a game Sophie doesn't understand. When she wakes alone in the darkened room, Brad lurks in the doorway with menace radiating from his drunken frame. His eyes devour her exposed flesh as he claims Margot texted him to come. But where is Margot now? Sophie flees into the night, her skin crawling with the memory of his predatory stare. The next morning brings news that shatters Sophie's remaining illusions. Margot's body has been found floating by her dock, another victim of the lake's dark waters.

Chapter 6: Unmasking the True Predator

Flynn's revelation hits like a physical blow—Margot is dead, drowned under suspicious circumstances that reek of murder. Sophie becomes the prime suspect again, her alibi consisting of drug-induced blackouts and teenage sexual encounters. The detective's patience evaporates as he struggles to piece together a timeline from Sophie's fractured memories. But Sophie's desperate research trip to Dallas abortion clinics finally pays dividends. At the Highland Park OB-GYN Group, receptionist Stacey remembers Abby's traumatic visit with two older women. Security footage confirms Callie's presence, but the second woman—wearing oversized sunglasses and a baseball cap—remains partially obscured. The truth hovers just beyond reach, tantalizingly close yet maddeningly elusive. Jamie fills in crucial gaps during a clandestine motel room meeting. Brad knew about Abby's pregnancy all along, pressuring her toward abortion while Margot pulled strings from the shadows. The quarterback was trapped between his college dreams and an unwanted child, with Margot promising weekend visits once he escaped Mapleton's suffocating embrace. The real puppet master begins to emerge from the shadows. Not Margot with her obvious cruelty, not Callie with her violent devotion, but someone hiding behind a mask of maternal concern. Someone who would kill to protect her son's future, manipulating evidence and witnesses with surgical precision. As Sophie pieces together the conspiracy, she realizes she's been dancing to a killer's tune from the very beginning.

Chapter 7: A Mother's Lethal Protection

The final confrontation unfolds on Jill's boat in the middle of Cedar Lake, where afternoon sun turns water into molten gold. Sophie believes she's coming to share her discoveries with a grieving mother, but instead walks into a trap set by the true architect of death. Jill's confession spills out like poison from a broken bottle. She murdered Abby to save Brad's future, shooting the pregnant teenager when threats and coercion failed to eliminate the obstacle. The perfect mother's love twisted into something monstrous, justifying murder as maternal duty. She framed Sophie by carefully placing the smoking gun in her hands, preserving fingerprints while cleaning all others. Margot's death followed the same pattern—Jill intercepting texts, monitoring Brad's movements, drowning her son's seducer when seduction refused to end. The lake became her killing ground, its dark waters swallowing evidence and witnesses alike. Sophie realizes she was never the hunter in these deadly games, merely prey being herded toward slaughter. With a revolver pressed to Sophie's forehead, Jill prepares to complete her masterpiece—a suicide that will close both murder cases while protecting Brad's golden future. But salvation arrives in an unexpected form as Callie emerges from the forest with a shotgun, finally understanding who destroyed her beloved Margot. Detective Flynn's sirens wail across the water as Sophie kneels in the dirt, seconds from execution. The confrontation ends with handcuffs and harsh truths, but not before revealing the full scope of a mother's deadly devotion. In Jill's twisted logic, every murder was an act of love.

Summary

The hunting season ends with Jill Simmons behind bars, her perfect maternal facade stripped away to reveal the calculating killer beneath. Sophie survives the ordeal scarred but alive, her marriage hanging by the thinnest of threads as Graham struggles to forgive her betrayals. In small-town Mapleton, the wealthy wives' deadly games have finally claimed their architect, though the damage radiates through countless lives. Sophie tends her withered garden in the aftermath, planting seeds of hope while facing an uncertain future. The obsession that nearly destroyed her family has burned itself out, leaving behind hard-won wisdom about the dangers of losing oneself in another's magnetic pull. Some hunts end with prey escaping into the light, forever changed by their brush with predators who wear familiar faces and speak of love while planning murder.

About Author

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May Cobb

Cobb delves into the complexities of female relationships and the undercurrents of ambition and desire in her novels. Her writing often delves into the hidden tensions and psychological intricacies within seemingly ordinary lives, as evidenced in works like "The Hunting Wives" and "A Likeable Woman." By focusing on the internal and external conflicts faced by her characters, she creates narratives that resonate with readers seeking both entertainment and insight into human nature. Her method involves crafting suspenseful plots with rich, character-driven storytelling, which effectively captures the reader's imagination and keeps them engaged.\n\nReaders benefit from Cobb's ability to intertwine thrilling elements with deep explorations of personal and societal issues. Her novels, such as "My Summer Darlings" and "Big Woods," offer a compelling mix of suspense and emotional depth, making them appealing to those who enjoy psychological thrillers with a literary twist. The author’s background in literature, supported by her MA from San Francisco State University, adds a layer of sophistication to her work, enriching the reader’s experience through carefully constructed prose and nuanced character development.\n\nThis short bio highlights how Cobb's contribution to the literary world extends beyond her books; her essays and interviews in prestigious publications like The Washington Post showcase her engagement with broader cultural conversations. Therefore, her work appeals not only to fiction enthusiasts but also to those interested in contemporary issues, making her a significant figure in modern literature. Her Texas roots and current life in Austin provide a unique backdrop for her stories, adding authenticity and a regional flavor that enhances the reader's connection to the settings and themes she explores.

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