The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Kubica, Mary. Just the Nicest Couple. Park Row, January 10, 2023. Kindle.

In the suspense novel Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica, Jake Hayes, a renowned neurosurgeon, has gone missing. Christian Scott believes he knows what happened to Jake. Christian's wife, Lily, says she was walking in the park when Jake made a pass at her and then attacked her when she refused him. Lily says she hit Jake in the head with a rock to save herself and her and Christian's unborn baby. Nina, Jake’s wife and Lily’s best friend, only knows that her husband is missing.

In this dual-narrative novel, Christian knows something has happened to scare Lily, but she does not tell him the details for two days. By this time, Christian believes it is too late to go to the police to report the attack. He fears Lily will be charged with wrongdoing because she waited so long to report the possibility that she seriously injured Jake. Christian goes about covering up what might have happened by trying to find and destroy evidence. He moves Jake’s car and disposes of the bloody clothes that Lily was wearing after the attack.

Nina, meanwhile, believes Jake has just left her in his anger until she receives a call from the hospital where he works telling her that he has not come to work since Monday. Nina reports Jake missing at the police department, but the police do not seem to be too concerned about him. Nina even rescinds the missing person report on Jake when her mother, who has been staying with Nina since Jake’s disappearance, claims that Jake came home. Then, he left again when he realized she was there. Nina’s mother has macular degeneration, making it difficult for her to identify people. The man in the house was really Christian, looking for the key to Jake’s car so he could move it.

Lily and Christian are on high alert when a body is found in Langley Woods, where Lily was attacked by Jake. Nina is notified first that her husband is dead. It is only later that it is announced on the news that Jake died of a gunshot, news that comes as a shock to Lily.

Lily also is shocked when Nina finds an earring belonging to Lily in Jake’s car and returns it to her. This discovery prompts Lily to tell her husband that the attack on Jake did not happen exactly the way Lily first said it did. Lily tells her husband that she and Jake had been having an affair. Jake attacked her when she told him she wanted to end the affair.

Meanwhile, Nina has discovered that Jake’s gun is missing from their safe. She also has found a traffic violation issued to her mother the day Jake disappeared, a violation that is suspicious since her mother claims she cannot see well enough to drive. Nina searches her mother’s house and finds Jake’s gun in the trunk of her mother’s car. Her mother finds Nina with the gun and tries to explain that she saw how unhappy Jake was making Nina. Nina’s mother believes she did Nina a favor by killing Jake. She believes Nina should be grateful to her. Nina acts as if she is not going to turn her mother in to the police.

Eight months later, Nina’s mother has been released from jail, where she was being held on the murder conviction, because she is dying of breast cancer. Lily and Christian are separated. They share custody of their daughter, Bella. Christian might be open to reconciliation when he reveals that one day he will surprise Lily and accept her invitation to stay for dinner when he meets her for her week with Bella.