Gone Before Goodbye

Marc is Maggie’s husband; although he is deceased before the main narrative begins, his presence permeates the story through Maggie’s memories, flashbacks, and his AI griefbot counterpart. The prologue establishes him as a brilliant and dedicated cardiothoracic surgeon who is completely at home in the chaos of an operating theater. His defining characteristic, which he shares with Maggie, is a deep-seated fear of ordinary life, encapsulated in his stark admission, “We don’t fear danger. We fear normalcy” (3). This philosophy drives his life’s work, from his service as a military field surgeon to the co-founding of WorldCures, a charity designed to provide medical care in the world’s most dangerous and impoverished regions.

As a character, Marc embodies the theme of The Corruption of Idealism. His sincere desire to save lives and push medical boundaries leads him to make compromises that have catastrophic consequences. He is the primary force behind WorldCures, but he is also the one who accepts funding from the dubious Kasselton Foundation, unknowingly inviting Oleg Ragoravich’s corrupting influence into their work. Marc’s character and Maggie’s investigation of his connection to Oleg serve as the catalyst for the entire plot, and the mystery surrounding his death forces Maggie to question the blurry line between heroism and recklessness.

Although Trace never appears in the novel, he is one of the novel’s antagonists, a round character whose true nature is revealed gradually. Initially presented as Marc’s loyal best man and a gifted cardiothoracic surgeon who served alongside Maggie in combat, he is a trusted friend and colleague. Trace shares Marc and Maggie’s addiction to high-stakes environments, telling Maggie after a traumatic mission, “[W]e’ll always long for this thrum in the blood” (39). This shared trait makes his eventual betrayal all the more profound. As a foil to Marc, Trace represents a darker, more ruthless form of ambition. While Marc’s idealism is corrupted by compromise, Trace actively embraces moral decay in the pursuit of his goals.

The revelation of Trace’s role as “the Snake,” the surgeon who illegally harvests organs from vulnerable people in refugee camps, marks his complete descent and solidifies him as the embodiment of the corruption of idealism. His actions demonstrate how a desire to push medical boundaries, symbolized by his work on the THUMPR7 artificial heart, can become a justification for monstrous acts. He views his work, including organ harvesting, as a necessary evil to advance medicine, revealing a worldview that places him above conventional morality. His murder of Marc is the ultimate act of self-preservation, eliminating the one person who could expose his crimes. Trace’s character arc is a cautionary tale about how easily noble intentions can curdle into criminality when ambition is left unchecked by ethics.

Marc’s father, known only as Porkchop, functions as a mentor and guardian figure for Maggie. As the leader of the Serpents and Saints motorcycle club, he is a man who operates according to his own unshakeable code of loyalty and justice, often outside the bounds of the law. His background as a single teenage father who raised Marc within the world of a biker gang makes him an unconventional but fiercely protective patriarch. Despite his gruff, old-school demeanor, Porkchop possesses a deep emotional intelligence and provides Maggie with the stability and unconditional support she needs after Marc’s death. His resourcefulness and the loyalty of his network prove crucial in protecting Maggie and uncovering the truth. 

Porkchop is a static, round character whose morality is gray; he is willing to use violence and intimidation to protect his family. His final, brutal act of vengeance against Trace is not portrayed as heroic but as a grim necessity, the logical conclusion of his personal code. He understands the high cost of such actions, telling Nadia, “It stays with you” (329), acknowledging the permanent stain of taking a life. He represents a form of justice that is personal and absolute, a contrast to the corrupt and ineffective systems depicted elsewhere in the novel.

Nadia Strauss, whose real name is Salima, is a dynamic and round character who acts as both a foil and an eventual ally to Maggie. She is a character of multiple, shifting identities: a refugee, an organ donor, a guide named Salima, an oligarch’s lover, and Trace Packer’s fiancée. Her journey is one of survival, driven by a desperate need to find Trace and uncover the truth about his disappearance. Her backstory, in which she sells her kidney to provide her family with a new life, introduces a complex moral perspective that challenges the novel’s more privileged characters. Her actions are born of necessity, and she refuses to be judged by those who have never faced her circumstances.

Initially, Nadia manipulates Maggie, using a temporary Serpents and Saints tattoo and a web of lies to probe her for information, believing that Maggie is responsible for Trace’s vanishing. This positions her, initially, as an antagonist. However, as the truth is revealed, she becomes a mirror for Maggie. Both are intelligent and resourceful women who have been deceived and are driven to extreme measures by their love and loss. Her technical skills and insider knowledge of Oleg Ragoravich’s operation become invaluable. Nadia’s character illustrates resilience and the moral complexities that arise from a life of desperation and survival.

Oleg Ragoravich is the novel’s chief antagonist, a flat and static character who embodies the corrupting influence of absolute power and wealth. A reclusive Russian oligarch obsessed with achieving immortality, he is the architect of the criminal enterprise that uses WorldCures as a front. His motivations are purely self-serving; he views the entire world, including human lives, as a resource to be exploited for his personal gain. His philosophical justifications for his actions, such as buying human organs for experimentation, reveal a deep-seated megalomania and a belief that he operates on a plane above conventional morality.

The motif of surgical alteration and disguise is central to his character. He uses a surgically altered body double to navigate the world and fake his own death, highlighting his obsession with control and deception. His desire to have his own face surgically altered to resemble his military portrait is a key plot point, ultimately revealing his elaborate plan to disappear from the world stage. Ragoravich is a classic villain, whose immense resources and lack of empathy make him a formidable and terrifying force.