The Final Gambit

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-40

Chapters 41-50

Chapters 51-60

Chapters 61-70

Chapters 71-79

Chapters 80-86, Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 41-50Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 41 Summary

Avery goes back to the leather bag that Alisa brought her—the one that Tobias instructed Avery be given if she ever met Eve. Avery looks at the blue-green circle of glass that came in the bag and remembers the message she and Jameson found in the chess set: Don’t breathe. She realizes that blue-green glass circle is a clue pointing to the bottom of the Hawthorne House swimming pool (because you can’t breathe when you’re underwater).

Chapter 42 Summary

Avery goes to the swimming pool. Grayson is there and she explains to him, “When I met Eve, it triggered one of your grandfather’s games” (163). Grayson is surprised that Tobias knew about Toby’s daughter and upset that Tobias allowed Eve to be raised by unloving parents; he’s also upset by much of the information revealed in the file folders, which speak to his grandfather’s bad character. Grayson, who rarely shows emotion, says: “It was supposed to be me. […] I was the one who was supposed to take the reins once he was gone” (165). Grayson asks Avery to stop playing Tobias’s games. She reaches out to comfort him, but he tells her to stop, and leaves. Thinking of Jameson, Avery recognizes that she can’t stop—she dives into the pool with the blue-green glass circle to solve the next clue.

Chapter 43 Summary

Wedged under one of the tiles at the bottom of the pool, Avery finds a photo sealed in a waterproof pouch. It shows three women standing in front of a church; on the back is written “Margaux, France, December 19, 1973” (169). Jameson arrives to help Avery out of the pool.

Chapter 44 Summary

Back inside the house, Jameson and Avery discuss the new clue. They also discuss what they found in the file folders earlier that day. Jameson tells Avery: “The worst part isn’t knowing what my grandfather would do—and has done—to win. It’s knowing in my gut and in my bones, with every fiber of my being, why. It’s knowing that everything he’s done in the name of winning, I would have done, too” (173).

Chapter 45 Summary

The next day, Xander sends a “911” text, summoning Nash, Grayson, Jameson, Libby, Eve, and Avery. He wants them to join him in karaoke.

Chapter 46 Summary

Avery, Libby, Eve, Nash, Jameson, and Xander assemble for karaoke. Grayson is missing. Jameson and Avery find Grayson in the Hawthorne musical library, playing one violin after the next—and smashing each instrument after he’s done. Grayson is still distraught by what he’s learned about Tobias. Jameson and Avery tell Grayson about the clue from the pool. Grayson tells Avery and Jameson they need to go to the wine cellar.

Chapter 47 Summary

Grayson, Jameson, and Avery go to the wine cellar. Avery has a flashback to an emotional moment she and Grayson shared in the wine cellar; Grayson confessed his guilt for failing to save his loved ones and admitted that he hallucinated Emily’s voice, then begged Avery to reassure him that he was not “broken.” The day after Grayson and Avery’s encounter in the wine cellar, Grayson left for Harvard without saying goodbye to Avery. The moment raises a series of “what if” thoughts in Avery’s mind—what if Grayson wasn’t so heartbroken about Emily, and what if Avery were with Grayson instead of Jameson.

Grayson finds a bottle of wine in the cellar—a Chateau Margaux from 1973. Avery remembers that the leather bag from Tobias also had a steamer and realizes she can use the steamer to peel off the wine bottle’s label without ruining it. Presumably, there will be a clue or message on the label’s other side.

Chapter 48 Summary

Avery removes the wine bottle label with the steamer. On the other side, there’s a drawing of a teardrop crystal. It’s part of one of the chandeliers in Hawthorne House. Jameson, Grayson, and Avery find the right chandelier and identify the right crystal. By shining the flashlight from Tobias’s bag through the crystal, they reveal the message: “DON’T TRUST ANYONE” (188).

Chapter 49 Summary

Jameson notices that the chandelier crystal has another message: “Fin” (189). This is the final clue—the end. Avery shouldn’t expect any more clues from Tobias. Avery wonders if the message “DON’T TRUST ANYONE” refers to Eve. Grayson argues that this can’t be true, because the message says “anyone,” not “her.” Surprisingly, Jameson takes Grayson’s side; Avery suspects he thinks she’s acting out of jealousy. Eve overhears their conversation; she’s hurt to learn that Tobias knew about her. Avery asks to look at Eve’s phone. There is nothing threatening on it; Eve has taken photos of Sheffield Grayson’s file, but Avery assumes this is because Eve seems to have a crush on Grayson and recognized that Sheffield was Grayson’s father. At Grayson’s urging, Avery apologizes to Eve and asks her to stay, but she’s still suspicious. Eve says that Mallory wants to meet her and asks that Avery take her to see her grandmother.

Chapter 50 Summary

Xander, Avery, and Eve go to see Mallory. Avery is still trying to figure Eve out as she thinks: “She seemed so normal. I hadn’t found anything on her phone. But I had to keep my guard up. Didn’t I?” (197).

Chapters 41-50 Analysis

The Tricky Nature of Inheritance is further underscored in these chapters through Avery’s conversation with Grayson in Chapter 42. Grayson, distraught by all he’s learned of Tobias’s bad deeds, tells Avery: “It was supposed to be me. […] I was the one who was supposed to take the reins once he was gone” (165). Grayson isn’t jealous of Avery for inheriting Tobias’s wealth—he’s long ago made peace with this. Rather, he is troubled that he was supposed to be the next Tobias—power-hungry, greedy, and ruthless enough to protect the Hawthorne fortune and family. Grayson recognizes how his grandfather manipulated the people around him, which compounds with his preexisting feelings of never meeting Tobias’s expectations. Grayson even asks Avery to stop playing Tobias’s games, hoping to be freed of the dead man’s never-ending control—but Avery can’t stop.

Grayson’s distress speaks to the identity issues that inheritance often raises. Inheriting familial wealth means inheriting familial identity in a way, not to mention some obligation of gratitude. A family home is not just a possession—it’s an object filled with sentimental memories and values. In Grayson’s case, he was to inherit the burden of being the “man in charge”—someone who could lay aside emotions and sentiment in favor of cold-blooded business acumen. It’s a painful realization to know that he was expected to be as capable—that is, corrupt—as Tobias.

Grayson’s character is brought to the forefront in these chapters to tease out the subplot of the love triangle between Avery, Grayson, and Jameson. In Chapter 47, the reader learns about an emotional incident between Avery and Grayson that took place in the wine cellar before Grayson left for Harvard. Although they didn’t engage physically, Avery saw Grayson in one of his rare emotionally vulnerable moments—and the memory sticks with her when she returns to the wine cellar with Grayson and Jameson. The memory rouses Avery’s imagination, causing her to wonder what her life would currently be like if she and Grayson had ended up together instead. This further illustrates The Complexity of Love, as do Jameson’s reactions to Avery’s behavior. Although Jameson doesn’t trust Eve, he sees the way Avery watches Grayson and Eve growing closer and assumes that it's illogical jealousy based on her lingering affection for Grayson.

Plot-wise, these chapters exemplify how carefully the author plants breadcrumbs throughout the book—and then goes back and picks them up, metaphorically, later. Every clue that the author includes, even if it doesn’t make sense at the time, comes into play at some point. The steamer, for example, seems totally random at first, as do many of the objects in Tobias’s leather bag. Now, it’s used to peel off the label of the Chateau Margaux wine bottle, which leads to Tobias’s final hint. The blue-green glass and the clue “Don’t Breathe” are another example of how every detail is carefully connected and planned.

The author has also planted breadcrumbs for future points in the narrative still to come. When Avery takes Eve to Toby’s room, she notes how struck Eve is by the name “William Blake” on Toby’s wall. Only later will the reader learn that Eve isn’t reading this as William Blake the poet, but William Blake, Vincent Blake’s deceased son. Similarly, when Avery sees Eve taking photos of the file folders, she worries Eve may be up to no good. She then sees that Eve is only taking photos of Sheffield Grayson’s file, and chalks this up to Eve’s apparent romantic interest in Grayson. However, Sheffield Grayson’s file folder will come into play again in the very last chapters, when it’s revealed that Vincent knows about Sheffield’s murder (thanks to Eve’s reconnaissance) and uses it as leverage against Avery and Grayson.

Although Avery doesn’t yet know for sure that Eve is a “bad guy,” she is suspicious. These chapters provide some foreshadowing toward that end in the warning from Tobias: “DON’T TRUST ANYONE” (188). Avery remains wary, even though she has found nothing to concretely indicate that Eve has ulterior motives. Still, whether it’s a year of Tobias Hawthorne’s influence or simply Avery’s intuition, Avery will soon learn that her instincts are correct and that Eve cannot be trusted.