Book to Screen
‘Swan Song’: Everything We Know About the Book Behind ‘The Perfect Couple’ Season 2
The Perfect Couple is returning to Netflix for Season 2, and another Elin Hilderbrand book will serve as the source material for the script. The show’s second season will be based on Hilderbrand’s June 2024 novel Swan Song, according to Variety.
While there is still much to be confirmed about the highly-anticipated follow-up to the screen version of The Perfect Couple, the source material is at our fingertips. Scroll down for what we know about the book and what it might mean for what we can expect from the show.
Is Swan Song a sequel to The Perfect Couple?
The Perfect Couple (2018) and Swan Song are both part of Hilderbrand’s Nantucket series, along with A Summer Affair (2008) and The Castaways (2009). However, Swan Song is not a direct sequel to The Perfect Couple.
While there are overlapping characters in the Nantucket books, they all follow different storylines, so the The Perfect Couple will be an anthology series on television.
Are The Perfect Couple characters in Swan Song?
In Hilderbrand’s Nantucket books, police chief Ed Kapenash is a recurring character. In the first three Nantucket books, his character pops up every so often, but in Swan Song, his role is more prominent. With mystery shrouding the main characters in the Nantucket books, Kapenash was always close by to investigate.
In The Perfect Couple series, Kapenash’s character was renamed as Dan Carter (Michael Beach). Although he didn’t have as much screen time as some other characters, he was there to investigate the mysterious death of Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), the maid of honor for Eve Hewson, who was marrying into one of the island’s most prominent families.
Liam Daniel / Netflix
Kapenash’s daughter, who’s named Kacy in the books and Chloe (Mia Isaac) in the show, also has a big role in Swan Song.
It has not been confirmed whether Beach and Isaac will reprise their roles in Season 2. However, the book Swan Song does take place several years after The Perfect Couple, so that could pose an issue, particularly for the character of Chloe, who was in high school during Season 1.
What is Swan Song about?
The book Swan Song is about Chief Kapenash’s, well … swan song! After 35 years on the force, he’s ready to retire, but with just days left in his service, the multi-million dollar Nantucket home of a new couple, the Richardsons, burns down. Plus, the newcomers’ assistant Coco — who also happens to be friends with Kapenash’s daughter — mysteriously goes missing.
Because of his connection to the case via Kacy, Kapenash is more determined than ever to solve it, despite his retirement. Much of the story is told through the eyes of the Richardsons and Coco, with perspective from other townsfolk, as well. Characters from past Hilderbrand novels like “Fast Eddie,” a real estate agent, and “Blond Sharon,” the town gossip who’s recently divorced in Swan Song, reappear.
Is Swan Song Elin Hilderbrand’s last book?
Hilderbrand announced in 2024 that she is capping her pen on beach reads. Even though the four aforementioned books make up the official Nantucket series, Hildebrand has written 27 books set on the island in Massachusetts, and she’s ready to move on from that genre.
“I have run out of really good ideas for Nantucket novels, and I don’t ever want to put out a product that is subpar,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “I want it to be interesting, and I don’t want to repeat myself, and I really feel like this is the time to go.”
She also told People, “My retirement, really, is for [the fans]. I never want anybody to pick up my book and say, ‘It just wasn’t as good as the last one.’ That is not going to happen. I’ve been watching a lot of people’s careers and it’s so important how you dismount.”
But Hilderbrand isn’t done with writing completely. She teamed up with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, to write a new book series about a boarding school. The first installment, The Academy, comes out in September 2025. Hildebrand wrote the first draft, then sent it to her daughter to rewrite the dialogue so it made sense.
“I’m in a new genre world here,” she admitted. “It does not sound even remotely realistic if you’re not just using the language that the kids use.”
The Perfect Couple, Season 2, TBA, Netflix
