Years later, Jacob discovers that Evan has died without publishing anything, so Jacob goes on to write his own novel based on Evan's plot. Sure enough, it becomes just as big a bestseller as Evan predicted. Everything in Jacob's life is changing for the better until one day he gets an anonymous e-mail with a simple message: "You are a thief." Now Jacob must find out who this mysterious troll is who knows his secret before his life and career are destroyed.
The Plot contains examples of:
- Double-Meaning Title: Both the novel itself and the novel-within-a-novel Crib:
- The "plot" of the title refers most obviously to the plotline Jacob stole from Evan, but also refers to the grave in which Dianna's daughter is buried under her name.
- "Crib": either a noun describing a baby's bed or a verb indicating the action of theft, in this case of someone's identity. It often refers to plagiarism, adding another level.
- The Hero Dies: Jacob is drugged by his wife Anna and then given a lethal overdose. Anna then reveals herself to be Dianna, Evan Parker's sister upon whose life his story and later Jacob's book Crib is based on.
- Lampshade Hanging: When describing how her mother committed suicide by driving into a lake and that she and her sister were raised by an aunt who could not take care of herself, Anna calls these things "Something out of a novel." She is literally telling the truth since Anna is blatantly stealing the plot of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. It's a clue deliberately left by both character and author that something is amiss in Anna's past. The very title of this chapter is "Something Out Of A Novel" which also turns out to be a hint.
- Offing the Offspring: In the book-within-the-book, Diandre/Samantha kills her daughter Ruby/Maria. In the book itself, Dianna kills her daughter Rose and assumes her identity, using her daughter's scholarship at the University of Georgia.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Anna gives a brief one to Jake after receiving a letter from TalentedTom and not only finding out that he stole the plot for Crib from Evan Parker, but that he didn't tell her about the harassment from Tom for months. She gives him a longer one at the end after drugging him and revealing that she was Dianna a.k.a. TalentedTom all along.
- Roman à Clef: In-Universe example: Evan Parker's plot, up to and including the murder and impersonation, was ripped directly from his sister's relationship with her daughter.
- Self-Made Orphan: Dianna replaces the batteries of her family's carbon monoxide detector with dead ones and then makes sure her and her daughter's rooms' windows are open. Sure enough, her parents asphyxiate.
- Slipping a Mickey: Subverted. One character drugs another, seemingly just meaning to subdue them and prevent them from taking further action. But then the drugger takes advantage of the druggee's impaired state to force them to participate in their own fatal poisoning by swallowing a cocktail of other drugs.
- Take Our Word for It: Subverted at least twice.
- At first, when discussing Crib, characters have a tendency to refer to that twist in a carefully spoiler-free manner. Later, the twist is actually revealed.
- Jake finds out that the film version of Crib is going to be helmed by someone he describes simply as "[a]n A-list director, by anyone's standard," and it looks like the narrative will be playing coy about their identity. But soon afterward, the director is actually named: it's Steven Spielberg.
- Tampering with Food and Drink:
- In the book-within-the-book, Samantha kills Maria's inquisitive ex-girlfriend, who has been established as allergic to nuts, by sneaking crushed peanuts into her food.
- In the main story, Dianna/Anna drugs Jacob with Valium-laced soup.
- Too Dumb to Live: The reader may be unaware of Crib 's killer plot twist until the end of the book, but Jacob has known about it all the time. Still, when it dawns on him that the twist in Evan Parker's story about the mother killing the daughter and assuming her identity actually happened in real life it never occurs to him that his new wife Anna is about the same age. That same wife whom he met the very day he began to receive threatening e-mails. A woman with a very sketchy past and a name suspiciously similar to "Dianna." Somebody who knew where to mail threatening letters and the only one who knew in advance he was going to visit Arthur Pickens, Esq. Want some more of that delicious soup, Jake before you take a very long nap?
- Wham Line: "Well Jake," she said, "I'd have to say that's true. I've been angry at you for a very long time."
