Everything that happened with Miranda Huff

Everything that happened with Miranda Huff (2019) is the third installment by the novel writer of Spanish origin, Javier Castillo. Since the work was launched on the literary market, as it happened with its first two titles, The day that sanity was lost (2014) and The day love was lost (2018), has been a worldwide success.

Indeed, this psychological thriller has hooked more than one reader. All thanks to a narrative with surprising plot changes and a perfect mix between suspense and love. It is the story of a couple, the Huff, who at a difficult time in their relationship decide to take a small retirement trip. But something is wrong, Miranda Huff has disappeared and everything indicates that she is not alive.

About the author, Javier Castillo

Javier Castillo was born in Málaga, Spain, in 1987. DFrom a very young age he showed interest in literature, feeling a great inclination for crime novels. He has declared on several occasions that he has a great fondness for Agatha Christie. At the age of 14, Castillo wrote his first story inspired by the work of this famous writer of the crime genre.

Before making his debut in the literary world, Javier Castillo studied business studies and completed a master's degree in management. Subsequently, he held positions as a financial advisor and corporate consultant. However, he never gave up his passion for writing.

Dreams come true

In 2014 Castillo published his first novel, The day that sanity was lost, through the Kindle Direct Publishing application. For more than a year this book remained number one in the Amazon sales charts, breaking records in the digital format. Then, in 2016, the Suma de Letras publishing house made the physical publication of this and all his other upcoming works to the present:

• The day that sanity was lost (2016)
• The day love was lost (2018)
• Everything that happened with Miranda Huff (2019)
• The snow girl (2020)

About the plot

A couple of time travels

Everything that happened with Miranda Huff it is a novel that intertwines different timelines. It is narrated in the first person, from the perspective of different characters, especially the main ones:

• Ryan.
• Miranda.
• James Black.

Black's history dates back to 1975, when he was just a scholarship student at the University of California. There he meets Jeff, his roommate and his teacher Paula Hicks, a widow. She, later, would become his lover.

Also, some chapters will allow the reader to go to the past of the protagonists, Miran and Ryan, to learn a little about their personal lives. There you can learn about the different versions of how they fell in love, their experiences at university and, in general, how their relationship has evolved since then.

Summary Everything that happened with Miranda Huff

An anxious start

The suspense of this novel is marked from the first pages. In the prologue, we have a Ryan Huff shocked by the disappearance of his wife, Miranda. He was at home, not sleeping and unable to stop thinking about his situation and what he had experienced the night before.

Outside, someone is insistently knocking on the door, Ryan thinks it may be his wife, but when he decides to go see who it is, it is only the inspector. This is bad news: the body of a woman was found very close to where Miranda had disappeared. You have to identify the body.

Trouble in paradise

Ryan and Miranda are a young couple from Los Angeles who decide to get married. They have been together since college, where the two were studying film studies. They are both screenwriters. During the first year of marriage, Ryan's work is nominated for major awards, for which the couple attend a host of events and parties where they rub shoulders with important industry figures.

In the eyes of the public, they seem like a perfect match. But, after two years of marriage, the problems begin at home. They can barely pay the mortgage on their huge property. Following his success, Ryan focused on enjoying his fleeting fame and his productivity wore off. Not to mention that the original idea for that award-winning script really belonged to Miranda.

Breaking point

Things were getting serious among the Huffs. That is when they decide to go to couples therapy. On the recommendation of their marriage counselor, they organize everything to go on a weekend trip to a cabin in Hidden Springs.

After getting everything ready and finishing their homework, they were supposed to go to the cabin together. But a call from Miranda to Ryan, who at the time was meeting with James Black, his mentor and good friend, changed everything. Each one would go on their own.

Old friends

Ryan met the famous James Black on the first day of school at the University of California in 1996. He was a renowned retired screenwriter and film director. When Ryan graduated, their friendship remained off campus. More than a friend, Black was his greatest confidant and faithful advisor in matters of love. But he was hiding many secrets.

Despite having all the money in the world for his successful Hollywood career, James Black was a simple man. He drove the same old car, lived in a humble house and sat down to eat at the Steak, a seedy restaurant in Los Angeles.

The cabin

After several hours of driving, Ryan finally reached the cabin in Hidden Springs, and noticed his wife's car was outside. The door of the place was open, and when he entered, his wife was not there. However, there are two half-drunk glasses of wine in the kitchen, the bathroom is full of blood, and the bed in the bedroom is unmade. Obviously, something bad has happened, and Ryan only thinks about calling the authorities.

Revelations of the past and future

The authorities arrive and indisputably the first suspect was Mr. Huff, but there is no conclusive evidence against him and let him go. Back in Los Angeles, Ryan stopped by Black's house, as his secretary, Mandy, had communicated with him hours before: something terrible was happening to James.

Upon arrival, Ryan found his friend on the basement floor in shock. It seems that the original version of his masterpiece, The great life of yesterday had disappeared. An amateur movie that he made in his student years and that Miranda and Ryan were about to see hiding one afternoon at the university. But Black, who was then a teacher, found them and stopped them in time.

This was possible thanks to Jeff, the manager of that small projection room and Black's old friend, who, from his appearance, seemed to have suffered a terrible accident. Ryan says goodbye to Mandy that night to go home and she confesses that she is pregnant with him.

Betrayals

Ryan, actually, he was not such a good guy, he had a problem with alcohol. Besides sleeping with Mandy, he cheated on Miranda many times with Jennifer, a prostitute from a bar he used to hang out with. The corpse that they found in the forest the day after Miranda disappeared was, in reality, that of the lover of the bar.

Ryan recognized Jennifer perfectly in the forensic bag, but said nothing about it. Her physical characteristics and age matched Miranda's profile, but she was definitely not his wife. What he did not know is that later the police would find security videos of the bar where they hang out together.

The Truth About Yesterday's High Life

The original cast of the James Black film consisted of Jeff, Paula and their children - Anne and Jeremie - in addition to his own person. The idea of ​​the film was to record the different types of love: passionate, unconditional, forbidden, among others. But, James' ambition to make real movies drove him to the brink of insanity that summer.

Being the protagonist Paula, her character — Gabrielle — had more scenes. While filming, Jeff took care of his children, and they created affection for him. Hence a relationship between Paula and Jeff was born. James noticed and confronted them, but didn't say anything by then.

A terrible revenge

The end of the film ended with a disastrous accident, in which Paula died. He was supposed to drive down a ravine in Hidden Springs, but brake in time to get out and then they would push the car. However, James Black cut the brake cables. When Jeff found out, he tried to get in the way, but it was too late, he got run over.

James, instead of helping them, only worried about filming everything. Paula took her last breaths in front of the camera. Jeff, after a long rehabilitation, managed to survive. It was he who cared for the rest of his life as a dad to Anne and Jeremie. Over time, they grew up and looked for a way to do justice.

A master plan

Miranda was fed up with Ryan, when he got drunk, which he did constantly, abusing and humiliating her. She was no fool, she knew that Mandy was pregnant with him and that, besides, he was cheating on her with other women. One night, brothers Anne and Jeremie helped her see reason, and she, with her prodigious mind, put together a perfect plan to unmask Black and get rid of her husband.

Her marriage counselor, Dr. Morgan, was, in truth, Jeremie. The cabin in Hidden Springs was rented with Ryan's card and used his phone the night before in the area to locate him there. They chose that location in order for the investigation to lead to the discovery of Paula Hicks' body. In one of many visits to Black, Miranda took the opportunity to steal the tapes of The great life of yesterday which were the main test.

The final thrust was to murder Jennifer, the prostitute Ryan was sleeping with. His blood was what was spilled on the bathroom floor in the cabin. When Miranda appeared three days later, all covered in mud and wounds, she blamed her husband for having killed that girl and for wanting to do the same to her.