The study guide uses the first edition paperback: Schaitkin, Alexis. Saint X. Celadon, 2021.

It is late December, 1995. In the Caribbean, wealthy American tourists have filled the toney resorts along the pristine beaches of the remote island of Saint X. The Thomas family, mother, father, and two sisters, 18-year-old Alison, a college freshman, and 7-year-old Claire, enjoy their last day at the resort. During the week the family has been there, Alison, with her striking good looks and her careless approachability, has generated much attention among not only the guests but among the resort’s uniformed staff, most notably Clive Richardson, nicknamed Gogo, and his ever-present buddy Edwin Hastie. The night before the family is to depart, Alison slips out of the room she shares with her little sister, who wakes long enough to see the empty bed but goes back to sleep, figuring Alison would be back in a few hours. Days later Alison’s body washes up in one of the island’s numerous cays. Given the advanced decomposition of the body and the effects of the surf and the sea water, the coroner cannot say with certainty what killed the girl. The island police investigate and immediately detain Clive and Edwin, reported to be the last to see the girl alive, drinking with her in one of the island’s shadier dives. Without sufficient evidence, no eyewitnesses, and no confession, however, the police release both several days later. The Thomas family is incensed and uses the massive international media interest in the girl’s death to try to encourage an arrest. Nothing works, and the case quickly goes cold.

Eighteen years later, Claire, now working in Manhattan as a publishing house manuscript editor, chances to take a taxi driven, she is stunned, by none other than Clive Richardson. Years have passed, but she is sure that is who he is. She begins a campaign of shadowing him to his work, to his cramped studio apartment, to his favorite Caribbean restaurant. Clive, she sees, is something of a loner, given to meandering walks. Always dealing with lingering suspicions in his involvement with the American girl’s death, Clive had left Saint X, despite having a longtime girlfriend, Sara, and a son there whom he deeply loves. Too associated with the dead American girl, he seeks the anonymity and job opportunities of New York City. Through the winter and into spring, the two develop a cautious kind of friendship, although Claire, who now goes by the name Emily, never tells Clive who she is. She says she is new to city, a transplant from Indiana. The awkward relationship and her determination to get Clive to implicate himself begins to obsess Claire. She neglects her work responsibilities and is summarily terminated. Even as the friendship with Clive compels Claire to dig anew into the archives from her sister’s death, she finds herself attracted to the lonely black man. After they share their first hesitant, but passionate, kiss, Clive reveals to Claire that he figured out long ago who she is, never believing her elaborate lies about growing up in Indiana. The revelation stuns Claire.

With no reason to lie anymore, Clive opens up to Claire about what happened that night. Alison, celebrating her last night on the island, drank excessively and smoked ganja with Clive and Edwin on a remote inlet. She danced suggestively and beckoned for the three of them to have sex on the beach. Clive, conflicted because of his rocky relationship with Sara, declined the offer, not drunk enough to ignore that such behavior could cost him his job, one of the best paying jobs on the otherwise impoverished island. Alison, quite drunk and now frustrated, passes out with a half empty bottle of rum. While she is out, however, Clive’s buddy, aroused by Alison’s provocative behavior, makes a sexual advancement on a shocked Clive. While the two are engaged in sex, Alison comes to and sees them. She runs off in the night, hazy from the drugs and alcohol, uncertain how to react. Trying to negotiate the slippery cove rocks and the surging waves, she most likely slipped, hit her head, and drowned, a stupid and entirely preventable accident. Clive never told the police any of this, preferring to be suspected of a murder he did not commit than to be publicly outed as a bisexual in the Caribbean’s religious-centered, decidedly conservative and very homophobic culture.

Claire can hardly believe that resolution but understands that sometimes mysteries do not stun when they are finally solved, that sometimes accidents do kill young careless people. She sees that Clive lost as much, maybe more, than she did that night. Claire debates whether to tell her parents the truth. She cannot entirely shake how she has missed so much of her life determined to bring her sister’s murderers to justice. She closes the novel resolved now to live in the urgent promise of today while back on Saint X American tourists continue to arrive.