One of Us Is Dead

Jenny is the proprietor of Glow. Unlike the other point-of-view characters, her last name is never revealed.

The events of the novel force Jenny to reconsider her work-life balance. She loves her job and has focused on it to the exclusion of a personal life for the last few years despite the constant encouragement of her employee and best friend, Keisha. After being attacked in her salon, she questions her priorities and resolves to cut back on work hours. At the very end of the book, she starts dating the detective investigating Olivia’s death, Detective Sanford.

Jenny is at once the most and least visible of the main characters. Short excerpts of her interview with Sanford after Olivia’s death break up the story of events leading up to it. Both the novel’s structure and her position as a universal confidante highlight her importance to the narrative. She knows more about the details of her clients’ lives than any other character. In Shannon’s words, “Knowledge was power, and Jenny had all of it” (51). However, her role in the story for the first three quarters of the text is most often as the host and peacekeeper rather than the center of the drama.