Murder Road

Eddie Carter is April’s husband of only a few days when the novel begins. An army veteran, Eddie served in Iraq and has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since returning home. In fact, Eddie’s discharge is the result of the onset of PTSD symptoms while he was still in Iraq. Because he has a history of auditory and visual hallucinations from his PTSD, Eddie doesn’t trust his own perceptions, and often depends on April to verify what he is seeing and hearing. This is especially important to the plot because early on, the Lost Girl only reveals herself to him.

April describes Eddie as “[not] a huge man, but […] sleekly muscled, and his biceps were hard under the sleeves of his T-shirt, his physical presence at odds with his quiet, studious expression” (2). Eddie is also polite and helpful in his interactions with Rose, offering to help in the garden, always thanking her and calling her Mrs. Jones, and even trying to pay her for their police-mandated visit. April also notes that people are always underestimating Eddie, connecting his character to the theme of The Difference Between Appearance and Reality, but she sees how his calm confidence affects those around him; watching him question a girl, she notes, “He could have been a cop, […] the calm expression on his face, the way his gaze held hers, firm but not intimidating” (96). In this scene she finally realizes that she may have been underestimating Eddie as well when she notes that “my husband of two days just might be smarter than me” (96). Eddie’s character arc, like April’s, involves Overcoming Past Trauma. In Eddie’s case, it goes beyond his PTSD and to his origins as, over the course of the novel, they begin to unravel the mystery of his biological mother, Shannon Haller.

Quentin is Murder Road’s main antagonist. For much of the novel, he is April and Eddie’s adversary as he accuses them of murder, stops them from leaving town, destroys their car, and subjects them to interrogation. In a final act of antagonism, Quentin uncovers the full truths about April and Eddie’s pasts and reveals them, potentially permanently damaging their relationship. This is characteristic of Quentin, who doesn’t consider the repercussions of his actions on others—everything he does is in the service of solving the case. He is heedless of the pain he causes, or pain he doesn’t help to stop, as when he did nothing to stop the relentless racism that Robbie faced on the police force. Even Quentin’s partner, Detective Beam, hates him, but when April asks why he works with Quentin, he replies, “He closes cases, and that’s all that matters” (306). Although Quentin has the same aim as April and Eddie—to solve the mystery of the Atticus Line killings—his character is adversarial, creating tension and pressure on April and Eddie, even in their personal relationship.

When they first meet Quentin, April describes him as “fiftyish, maybe. It was hard to tell. His face was unlined but his hair was salt and pepper, cut short to his scalp. His eyes were dark blue” (24). April immediately sees him as a danger: “[M]y gut gave a familiar squeeze as I felt spiky sweat on the back of my neck. Fight or flight, they called it. An old, dark human instinct. Mine was particularly honed. Beware of this one. Get away if you can” (24). Yet for all Quentin’s antagonism and hostility, he is also open-minded enough to accept the paranormal component of the Atticus Line killings. Quentin’s personal idiosyncrasies and offensive behavior are all due to his desire to solve the case at any cost. At the end of the novel, St. James offers a more complex perspective on Quentin. He is watering his lawn when April and Eddie drive up—no longer an omnipotent detective, but a man who is doing chores because it’s his “assignment” while his “wife took the children grocery shopping” (331). After this interaction with him, April understands that what she saw as danger and antagonism was a single-minded passion for solving the case and most of all, identifying and finding justice for the victims.

Rose is the owner of the bed-and-breakfast where April and Eddie stay while in Coldlake Falls. Rose’s role in the novel is ambiguous when she is first introduced. She is grumpy and unwelcoming, and April describes her as “somewhere in her forties, with brownish-blond hair in a short haircut and glasses that took up most of her face” (27). Rose’s house is small and cluttered, and she has a preoccupation with Princess Diana that April finds unsettling. However, as the novel continues and more is revealed about Rose’s life, it becomes clear to April that Rose’s house is trapped in time, unchanged since Robbie’s death; at the end of the novel when they return, they find that by resolving the Atticus Line murders, they have prompted Rose to move on as well, illustrated by a shift in her home décor.

Rose is a keen judge of character, quickly assessing April and Eddie as innocent of Rhonda Jean’s murder, saying to April, “I could see you going either way. But your husband? That man has never killed anyone in his life” (61). She also understands the predicament of “pretty girls,” telling April, “People think pretty girls get the best of everything, but in my opinion they get the worst of it” (63). With this comment, Rose shows April the deep intelligence and understanding that she hides with her brusque rude behavior. Rose’s attitude in general, and toward the police in particular, is rooted in the department’s treatment of her husband, Robbie. Because he was Black, he was never given opportunities to advance or investigate, and since he died, she has dealt with the rumor that she killed him and buried him in the yard. She quickly becomes April and Eddie’s first ally in Coldlake Falls and is the one who first suggests that they get ahead of the police’s case against them by investigating on their own, lending them Robbie’s car for the purpose. 

Beatrice and Gracie, the “Snell sisters,” are Coldlake Falls locals and well-known in the community for their investigations and conspiracy theories. Beatrice and Gracie’s insights, research, and resources are invaluable to April and Eddie as they seek to solve the mystery of the Atticus Line killings. However, as Beatrice points out, their interest in the case is also personal—they are teenage girls too, and as such, they have a stake in finding the killer.

When April and Eddie meet her, Beatrice has just turned 16, and as April notes, “Black eyeliner lined her eyes, a little smudged, belying the roundness of a face that had only recently emerged from childhood” (156). Gracie is a bit older and is “taller than Beatrice, slender, with a pleasantly long face and straight, dark hair streaming past her shoulders” (163). They are both intelligent, smart, daring, and resourceful. During her community service, Gracie accesses police files, and later, does volunteer work at the hospital to get more information for the investigation. They are also privileged, illustrated by their swimming pool, new cars, and seemingly no adult supervision. Gracie’s community service at the police station, which she uses to copy all the files about the Atticus Line murders, comes about after her father pulls strings to get her out of punishment for speeding. Even though the community disparages the Snell sisters, Quentin comments at the end of the novel that he “should get the FBI to recruit them when they’re old enough” (334), showing his respect for their investigative skills.