The Boy from the Woods

Hester is a successful lawyer, with a strong reputation and her own television show, Crimstein on Crime. She is a by-the-book attorney who adheres to the legal system but is very driven to enact justice and is perfectly happy to use intimidation as a tactic. Saul is her legal foil, while Rusty and the Maynards’ self-serving practices thwart her attempts to achieve justice for Raymond.

On a personal level, Hester clings to her past and is afraid to take chances. She fixates on the death of her son, David, which colors her relationship with Wilde, David’s best friend. This also drives her hesitation on her budding relationship with Oren—while the attraction is mutual, she struggles to separate Oren and her romance with him from the death of her son. It is only when she learns that the two elements can coexist that she allows herself to dream of her future and move on from the shackles of her grief.

Naomi is Ava’s biological daughter and Crash’s classmate. Adopted as a baby into a troubled and abusive family, Naomi has been bullied since elementary school, often by Crash. She is miserable, taking solace mainly in her collection of stuffed animals. She mostly wants to start over and create a new life for herself.

Wilde and Hester each try to seek justice for her in their own ways. Hester operates from a distance, putting out missing person announcements when Naomi vanishes; this backfires. Wilde, who seeks her out in person, becomes a father figure to her. He and Ava eventually supplant Naomi’s legal parents as her chosen family. Operating mostly alone throughout the novel, Naomi is quite resourceful, throwing red herrings to mask her trail when she runs away for real and seeking out allies when necessary. Wilde fully supports her goals and helps ensure that she gets the happy ending she deserves.

Ava is an ostensibly neutral party for most of the novel but is actually quite important for Naomi’s plotline. An art teacher at the local high school, Ava is Wilde’s ex and Naomi’s biological mother. Originally merely seeking to check in on Naomi and observe from afar, Ava quickly decides to seek justice on her own and rescue Naomi from bullies and her abusive adoptive father.

Though Ava and Wilde’s romantic relationship fizzles out, she assists him in interrogating Crash and searching for Naomi during the challenge game. Afterward, she mostly attempts to misdirect Wilde’s attempts to find Naomi, leading to his suspicion that she is a spy for Saul. Rather, Ava is almost a foil for Laila—she remains (mostly) available as a love interest for Wilde, and by the end of the book, Ava, Wilde, and Naomi have formed a new family unit when they leave for Costa Rica.

Crash is Delia and Dash’s son and eldest child. A high schooler at the time of the novel, he bullies Naomi and convinces her to participate in the challenge game. Though Crash purports to be stressed out because of pressures at home to release Dash’s secret footage, he mostly just throws his wealthy clout around and hosts parties for his posse. He is kidnapped as collateral and loses a finger, but he seems to recover with few ill effects by the end of the novel. He tries to repair his relationship with Matthew but only ever has a limited connection with Naomi.

Delia is the chair of Reston College’s political science department, Dash’s wife, Rusty’s ex, and a mother of three, including Crash. Though she and Dash seem happily married, this quickly becomes a veneer. Delia is more astute, wary, and suspicious than her husband, but she bonds with Hester over the disappearance of her son. Delia also tacitly condones Crash’s bullying.

Of all the surviving Capitol Hill interns—Delia, Dash, and Rusty—Delia is arguably the best at keeping secrets. She was the real murderer—she killed Anson out of self-defense when he drunkenly raped her, but there is no video footage to prove it. She had no knowledge of the murder tape or Dash and Rusty’s deal, but she prioritizes her family (specifically her children) over the truth. Though she may sympathize with Raymond’s plight, she has no intention of using her testimony to free him. In this way, she becomes something of a foil to Hester: Though both women care about their children, Hester is also a strong proponent for justice; while Delia won’t directly manipulate the media like Rusty does, she is content to reap its benefits for her own gain.

Dash considers himself a self-made man. A documentarian and television producer, he is always filming everything and never deletes his footage, sometimes to his detriment. He wants to make history but not be part of it, preferring to observe through the viewfinder than be in the spotlight. In the present day, he considers himself happily married, comfortably wealthy, and a caring father of three. However, despite his constant voyeurism, he never learns except through experience. When Crash is kidnapped, Dash doesn’t believe that his son is truly in danger until the Maynards receive the severed finger. Only then does Dash truly comply with the ransom demands and reveal his secret murder tape.

Dash also continues to trust Gavin despite his clear conflicts of interest and listens to the kidnappers more than he does Hester, his actual attorney. He naively believes that the murder tape will protect him from Rusty, despite the fact that it implicates him as well—he was only able to date Delia because he forced Rusty to break up with her as part of the deal for helping dispose of Anson’s body.

Rusty is a complicated man and the main antagonist. His parents were Ukrainian and Jamaican but were killed in a tragic automobile accident soon after Anson’s murder; Rusty was the only survivor. Rusty’s life and career are centered on his home state of New Jersey; at the time of his controversial presidential campaign, he is New Jersey’s senator. He is a strong proponent of the horseshoe theory of politics. Some characters describe Rusty as a “stone-cold sociopath”; he has no remorse for the crimes he commits, including sexual assaults on minors and being a secret accessory to murder.

Rusty is also adept at manipulating the media and public opinion for his own benefit; he doesn’t fear scandals because he can spin them in his favor. Manufactured truths are his forte. Rusty’s goal is to turn everyone into extremists because this will give him more power. In the past, he and Delia dated; it is unclear if his feelings for her ever dissipated. Though Rusty is innocent of actual murder, he keeps Delia’s secret to protect her. Rusty antagonized Anson and was dismissive of Dash, though they later “bonded” over the murder tape and became showbiz colleagues. Rusty is Gavin’s original boss and Saul’s enemy. Though Wilde has no direct relationship with Rusty, he chooses to support Gavin and Saul over Rusty in the murder tape case.

Gavin is the inside man; he is connected to almost every major character in the book. An ex-Marine, he served with Saul, works for Rusty, and is on loan to the Maynards as head of security in order to protect Dash’s incriminating footage from being leaked. He is very good at his job and is therefore a foil to Wilde: They both have military training and connections in high places; however, unlike Wilde, Gavin does not harbor any paternal feelings for the teenagers in his charge—he is “security, not a babysitter” (209). Wilde’s constant clashes with Crash also make Gavin Wilde’s main antagonist.

Gavin always wants to be involved in the inner circles; however, because of his connections, he is often the most compromised and suspicious character, albeit for the wrong reasons. His connection with Rusty precludes him from the Maynards’ team when Crash is kidnapped; his skill with security and surveillance tech renders him a probable spy. In the end, Gavin serves only himself, double-crossing both Rusty and the Maynards to team up with Saul in the name of justice, regardless of the collateral damage—Gavin is very much a character whose ends justify the means.