Arrival at Lackaday House

Zebedee "Zeb" Wyckham arrives at the remote, imposing Lackaday House, summoned by his distant cousin Wynn. The journey is cold, tense, and marked by the house's forbidding Gothic grandeur and the unwelcoming staff. Zeb's ADHD-driven restlessness and outsider status are immediately apparent, as is his discomfort with the family he's about to join. The house is filled with estranged relatives, including his cold ex-lover Gideon, and a mysterious, sheltered young woman, Jessamine. The atmosphere is thick with secrets, old resentments, and a sense of being watched. Zeb's arrival is less a homecoming than an entry into a carefully constructed, inescapable web.

The Inheritance Ultimatum

Wynn reveals his plan: his entire fortune and the house will go to whichever male relative Jessamine chooses to marry. The family is shocked, resentful, and immediately competitive. Zeb, Hawley, and Bram are all potential suitors, each with their own motives and histories. Jessamine, young and naive, is the pawn in Wynn's scheme to keep the estate "in the family." The dinner table becomes a battleground of veiled insults, old wounds, and barely contained hostility. Zeb is repulsed by the idea of marrying for money or manipulating Jessamine, but the pressure mounts as the family's true natures are exposed.

Ghosts and Family Secrets

The house's Gothic atmosphere is more than aesthetic: Jessamine claims to see a faceless, hooded ghost, and the family history is riddled with tragedy and scandal. Zeb learns of the so-called Wyckham curse—no descendant has lived past fifty since Walter Wyckham, the family's monstrous patriarch, allegedly made a deal with the devil. The house is filled with secret passages, strange noises, and the weight of past sins. Zeb's own failures and guilt, especially regarding Gideon, are mirrored in the house's oppressive gloom. The sense of being trapped—by family, by history, by the house itself—intensifies.

Old Wounds, New Tensions

Zeb's reunion with Gideon is fraught with unresolved pain and anger. Their past relationship, destroyed by a workplace scandal and Zeb's inability to make promises, simmers beneath every interaction. Meanwhile, Zeb's brother Bram is revealed as a self-righteous, controlling figure, and cousin Hawley as a decadent, predatory artist. Elise, Bram's wife, is both victim and manipulator. The family's dysfunction is laid bare, with old betrayals and new alliances forming. Zeb's ADHD and outsider status make him both vulnerable and uniquely perceptive to the house's dangers.

The Gothic Game Begins

Wynn's scheme is more than a simple inheritance contest; it's a psychological game, pitting relatives against each other and exploiting their weaknesses. The staff are sullen and unhelpful, the house's layout confusing and isolating. Zeb is haunted by the sense that he's living inside one of his grandfather's lurid Gothic novels, with all the attendant melodrama and menace. The family's attempts to court Jessamine are awkward and insincere, and Zeb's refusal to play along makes him a target. The house's atmosphere grows increasingly claustrophobic and surreal.

Shadows in the Corridors

Strange events escalate: footsteps in empty corridors, ghostly apparitions, and rooms filled with spiders. Zeb is targeted with psychological torment tailored to his deepest fears. The staff's complicity becomes more apparent, and the sense of surveillance and entrapment grows. Zeb's attempts to leave are thwarted by Wynn's control over the gates and the ever-present mist. The family's paranoia and desperation mount, and the line between supernatural and human malice blurs. Zeb's only solace is his rekindling connection with Gideon, but even that is fraught with risk.

Confrontations and Confessions

Zeb and Gideon finally confront their shared past, confessing the misunderstandings and insecurities that destroyed their relationship. Their emotional honesty becomes a lifeline amid the chaos. Meanwhile, Zeb learns more about the staff's grudges and the family's hidden crimes—abandonment, abuse, and betrayal. The inheritance contest turns deadly serious as Hawley begins blackmailing Zeb, threatening to expose his sexuality. Zeb's refusal to play the game puts him and Gideon in increasing danger, as Wynn's manipulations become more overt and the staff's hostility intensifies.

The Curse of Wyckham

Wynn reveals his belief in the family curse and his conviction that only by sacrificing his relatives can he extend his own life, as Walter allegedly did. The house's history of cruelty—slavery, imprisonment, and madness—comes to the fore. Zeb discovers the truth about the family's wealth and the suffering it was built on, deepening his resolve to reject the inheritance. The sense of doom is palpable, as each character is forced to confront their own guilt and complicity. The house itself seems to conspire in their destruction.

Spiders, Blood, and Betrayal

Zeb's room is filled with spiders and slanderous graffiti, a calculated attack on his sanity. Blood appears on the altar stone in the garden, and the staff's role in the torment becomes undeniable. The family's alliances fracture further, with accusations and threats flying. Elise, isolated and desperate, becomes a tragic figure. Zeb's attempts to protect Jessamine and the staff's victims are met with suspicion and hostility. The house's atmosphere is now one of open menace, and the possibility of murder looms.

The Staff's Revenge

Rachel, the housemaid, reveals the staff's true motives: each has been wronged by a Wyckham, and Wynn has promised them revenge. The staff are not mere bystanders but active participants in the unfolding horror, enacting poetic justice for past abuses. Zeb and Gideon are spared only because of Zeb's kindness and refusal to play Wynn's game. The lines between victim and perpetrator blur, as the house becomes a stage for retribution. The staff's complicity is both understandable and terrifying, and Zeb is forced to confront the limits of forgiveness and justice.

The Monastery's Echo

Wynn's scheme is revealed as a deliberate reenactment of Walter Wyckham's novels, with each family member cast in a fatal role. The house's secret passages, crypts, and rituals are all part of a grand, deadly performance. Zeb realizes that Wynn intends to sacrifice his relatives to gain years of life, believing in the literal power of the family curse. The boundaries between fiction and reality collapse, and the house becomes a living embodiment of Gothic horror. Zeb and Gideon's only hope is to escape before they become the next victims.

Death on the Stairs

Elise is found dead at the bottom of the stairs, her neck broken in a scene straight from Walter's novels. The family's remaining bonds dissolve in suspicion and grief. Bram, unhinged by guilt and manipulation, is implicated in her death. Hawley, desperate and dangerous, is armed and unpredictable. Wynn's control is nearly absolute, and the staff's loyalty to him is unwavering. Zeb and Gideon's window for escape is closing fast, as the house's body count rises and the true nature of the inheritance is revealed.

The Trap Tightens

Zeb and Gideon are physically trapped, locked in rooms and hunted by the staff. The mist lifts, but Wynn prevents anyone from leaving. The staff's revenge is nearly complete, and Wynn's madness is fully exposed. Zeb's attempts to save his brother and others are met with betrayal and violence. The secret passages become both refuge and threat, as the house's labyrinthine design serves Wynn's deadly purposes. The sense of impending doom is overwhelming, and only desperate action can save Zeb and Gideon.

Escape Plans and Promises

Zeb and Gideon reaffirm their love and commitment, vowing not to leave each other behind. Their emotional bond becomes their greatest strength, allowing them to resist Wynn's psychological warfare. With the help of a repentant Rachel, they learn of a final chance to escape when the grocer's cart arrives. Every moment is fraught with danger, as the staff and Wynn close in. Zeb's compassion and refusal to abandon even those who have wronged him are both his weakness and his salvation.

The Secret Passages

The escape is a harrowing journey through the house's secret passages, filled with spiders, darkness, and the echoes of past horrors. Zeb's deepest fears are confronted and overcome by his determination to save Gideon and himself. The outside world is tantalizingly close, but every step is shadowed by the threat of discovery and violence. The house's architecture, designed for secrecy and control, becomes the final obstacle to freedom. The tension is nearly unbearable as Zeb and Gideon race against time and fate.

The Final Reckoning

Zeb and Gideon make their final bid for freedom, pursued by Wynn's vengeful staff and the weight of the family's sins. The house's gates, once symbols of imprisonment, become the threshold to survival. The staff's revenge is both justified and horrifying, and Zeb is forced to accept that not everyone can be saved. The escape is a triumph of love, courage, and moral clarity over cruelty and superstition. The house, and the Wyckham legacy, are left to burn.

Aftermath and Ashes

In the aftermath, the truth is obscured by Wynn's lies and the authorities' indifference. The staff disappear, justice is partial at best, and the house is destroyed in a final act of purging fire. Zeb inherits the fortune by default but immediately gives it away, repatriating the ill-gotten wealth to the descendants of those wronged by his ancestors. He and Gideon build a new life together, grounded in honesty, compassion, and the hard-won knowledge that love and decency can survive even the darkest legacies.

Characters

Zebedee "Zeb" Wyckham

Zeb is the youngest Wyckham, marked by ADHD, a history of professional failures, and a deep sense of not belonging. His relationship with his family is fraught—he is the scapegoat, the "useless" brother, and the one who never quite fits. His past with Gideon is a source of pain and longing, and his refusal to play Wynn's inheritance game sets him apart. Zeb's psychological complexity—his guilt, his need for connection, his moral clarity—drives the narrative. He is both vulnerable and resilient, capable of great kindness and fierce loyalty. His journey is one of self-acceptance, the rejection of toxic legacy, and the embrace of love on his own terms.

Gideon Grey

Gideon is Zeb's former lover, now Wynn's secretary, whose presence at Lackaday House is both a torment and a lifeline. He is disciplined, organized, and deeply principled, but scarred by past betrayals and the loss of his career. Gideon's relationship with Zeb is a study in miscommunication, longing, and the struggle to trust. His psychological arc moves from anger and self-protection to vulnerability and renewed hope. Gideon's ability to see through Wynn's manipulations and his unwavering support for Zeb are crucial to their survival. His journey is one of healing, forgiveness, and the reclamation of joy.

Wynn Wyckham

Wynn is the patriarch of Lackaday House, orchestrator of the inheritance contest, and the true villain of the story. His genial exterior masks a mind warped by superstition, guilt, and a desire for control. Wynn's belief in the family curse and his willingness to sacrifice his relatives for his own longevity make him both tragic and monstrous. He manipulates everyone around him, including the staff, to enact a deadly reenactment of his father's Gothic novels. Wynn's psychological complexity lies in his self-justification, his capacity for cruelty, and his ultimate self-destruction.

Jessamine Wyckham (Jessamine Evans)

Jessamine is presented as the sheltered, naive heiress, but her true identity and motives are ambiguous. She is both victim and participant in Wynn's scheme, her innocence a mask for deeper cunning. Jessamine's psychological arc is one of awakening—first as a manipulated pawn, then as a potential agent of her own fate. Her relationship with Zeb is marked by genuine affection but also by manipulation and betrayal. Jessamine embodies the dangers of enforced innocence and the costs of being used as a symbol rather than a person.

Bram Wyckham

Bram is Zeb's older brother, a man obsessed with propriety, inheritance, and his own victimhood. He is both perpetrator and victim—abandoning his mistress, betraying Zeb, and ultimately being manipulated into murder. Bram's psychological rigidity and inability to see beyond his own grievances make him both pitiable and dangerous. His relationship with Elise is a study in mutual destruction, and his final descent into guilt and madness is the logical end of his self-justifying worldview.

Hawley Wyckham

Hawley is the family's black sheep, a charming, amoral artist whose wit masks deep cynicism and cruelty. He is both seducer and blackmailer, using Zeb's sexuality as a weapon. Hawley's psychological makeup is one of narcissism, self-destruction, and a desperate need for attention. His relationship with Jessamine is predatory, and his rivalry with Bram is both personal and symbolic. Hawley's ultimate fate is a testament to the dangers of unchecked ego and the corrosive effects of family legacy.

Elise Wyckham

Elise is Bram's wife, caught between her own ambitions and the family's machinations. She is both a player and a pawn, using her beauty and intelligence to survive in a hostile environment. Elise's psychological arc is one of increasing isolation and despair, culminating in her violent death. Her relationship with Zeb is unexpectedly tender, revealing the costs of being trapped in a system that values women only as prizes or obstacles.

Rachel (the housemaid)

Rachel is the leader of the staff's quiet rebellion, driven by her own history of abuse at the hands of the Wyckhams. She is both victim and agent, orchestrating the staff's revenge with cold precision. Rachel's psychological complexity lies in her capacity for both empathy and ruthlessness. Her decision to spare Zeb and Gideon is a recognition of their decency, but her refusal to abandon her quest for justice is both admirable and chilling.

Colonel Dash

Dash is the family's military cousin, initially presented as a stabilizing force but ultimately revealed as another perpetrator of past wrongs. His disappearance and death are both a mystery and a warning. Dash's psychological makeup is one of entitlement and denial, his fate a consequence of the family's collective sins.

Walter Wyckham (influence)

Walter is the long-dead grandfather whose novels and crimes haunt every corner of the house. His legacy of cruelty, exploitation, and Gothic imagination shapes the narrative and the characters' fates. Walter's psychological presence is that of the abuser whose influence persists long after death, a symbol of the inescapable past and the dangers of unchecked power.

Plot Devices

Gothic Inheritance Contest

Wynn's inheritance scheme is the central plot device, forcing the family into competition and exposing their worst traits. The contest is both literal and symbolic—a reenactment of Gothic fiction tropes and a mechanism for psychological torture. The structure allows for shifting alliances, betrayals, and the gradual revelation of character flaws. The contest's true purpose—to provide Wynn with sacrificial victims for his own imagined immortality—subverts the genre's expectations and heightens the sense of fatalism.

Haunted House and Supernatural Ambiguity

Lackaday House is both a physical and psychological labyrinth, filled with secret passages, ghostly apparitions, and the weight of past sins. The supernatural elements—ghosts, curses, blood, spiders—are both real and symbolic, reflecting the characters' guilt and the family's legacy of cruelty. The house's architecture serves as a metaphor for entrapment, surveillance, and the inescapability of history. The ambiguity between human and supernatural evil is maintained through foreshadowing, unreliable narration, and the deliberate reenactment of Gothic fiction.

Staff as Avenging Chorus

The staff's coordinated revenge is a key plot device, transforming them from background figures into agents of justice. Their actions are motivated by personal histories of abuse and betrayal, and their complicity in Wynn's scheme adds layers of moral complexity. The staff's perspective challenges the family's self-justifications and exposes the broader social consequences of privilege and neglect. Their role as both executioners and survivors is foreshadowed through subtle hints and revealed in a climactic confession.

Metafiction and Gothic Parody

Wynn's deliberate reenactment of Walter Wyckham's novels blurs the boundary between fiction and reality. The characters are forced into roles—hero, villain, victim—dictated by Gothic convention, and the house itself becomes a stage for melodrama and horror. This metafictional device allows for commentary on the genre's excesses, the dangers of living by inherited scripts, and the power of narrative to shape fate. The use of foreshadowing, allusion, and self-aware dialogue deepens the sense of inevitability and tragedy.

Psychological Realism and Redemption

The emotional core of the novel is Zeb and Gideon's relationship, which serves as a counterpoint to the surrounding horror. Their journey from estrangement to reconciliation is marked by confession, vulnerability, and the rejection of toxic legacy. The use of parallel structure—contrasting their honesty with the family's lies—underscores the possibility of redemption. The narrative's resolution, with Zeb giving away the inheritance and building a new life with Gideon, offers hope amid the ashes.

Analysis

All of Us Murderers is a masterful reimagining of the classic Gothic inheritance novel, using the trappings of haunted houses, family curses, and melodramatic secrets to explore the psychological and moral costs of legacy, privilege, and abuse. K.J. Charles subverts genre conventions by centering the narrative on Zeb, a neurodivergent outsider whose refusal to play the family's deadly game becomes an act of radical decency. The novel interrogates the ways in which power is maintained—through manipulation, silence, and the rewriting of history—and the consequences for those who refuse to conform. The staff's revenge, while understandable, is a chilling reminder of the limits of justice in a world built on exploitation. The love story between Zeb and Gideon offers a hard-won hope, grounded in honesty, mutual care, and the rejection of inherited guilt. Ultimately, the novel asks whether it is possible to break free from the past, and answers with a cautious, hard-earned yes: not through denial or violence, but through the courage to face the truth, make amends, and choose love over legacy.

Last updated: October 21, 2025