'The Holiday' Book Ending, Explained

June 30, 2024

Spoilers ahead for The Holiday book ending.

Adapted from T. M. Lorgan’s novel of the same name, Channel 5’s The Holiday sees a group of three families become embroiled in one heck of a mess. What started out as a relaxing holiday led by four best friends (Kate, Jennifer, Izzy, and Rowan) quickly turns into a disaster after the body of one friend is found at the bottom of a cliff. As the drama is nearing its end, viewers will be dying to know whether the show will follow the same dramatic conclusion as the book. So what is The Holiday book ending?

If C5’s adaptation continues to follow the source material, it will end up revealing that there was no affair whatsoever. So what on earth happened? Just as the story heads for the big reveal, one of Kate’s friends Izzy is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. After seeing Jennifer and Sean arguing, Kate comes to the conclusion that it’s Jennifer her husband has been having an affair with.

Kate proceeds to confront Sean, who finally tells the secret he’s been hiding from his wife after all this time. There was no affair, but he and Jennifer had been harbouring a pretty major secret: They were covering up the murder of a boy back home – Alex Bayley – who was killed by Jake in a hit and run.

Channel 5

But as Kate soon discovers, her daughter Lucy was also involved. Alex was her ex-boyfriend, and following their break-up he threatened her with a nude video he’d taken. Lucy asks Jake to do something about Alex, and Jake proceeds to run Alex over with his mum’s car. Sean stumbles across the scene while he’s on a run, and recognises the car almost immediately. Sean nearly calls the police, but is stopped when Jennifer blackmails him with a video Jake took of Lucy asking him to do something about Alex.

The news of Alex’s death soon reaches the three families in France, and Jake gets drunk and tells Izzy about what happened. After hearing the confession, Izzy plans on revealing Jake’s secret as her fiancé was killed in a hit and run. But when Jennifer discovers Izzy’s plans, she kills her to protect Jake. After learning all this, Kate nearly tells the police but hesitates as it means her daughter will likely go to prison too. But before she decides on what to do, Jennifer is arrested while the group are on holiday after she nearly kills Kate and Sean’s son Daniel.

At the very end of the book, a prologue details what happened a month after the book's end. It’s revealed that Kate breaks into Jennifer’s home with a key she once gave her to destroy the video Jake took of Lucy. Police eventually get involved in the drama once Jennifer is arrested, and they proceed to interview her husband Alistar about what actually happened to Alex.

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