Oil on Water

Rufus is the main character of the book and through whom we see all the action take place. He is a journalist searching for a story that will place him in the upper tier of reporters and have his editors and the Chairman, who runs his newspaper, excited to give him big stories and the acclaim he desires. Rufus carries with him a lot of guilt, having not been there for his sister when the two great tragedies of her life occurred: the scarification of her face in an oil fire, and her husband, John, leaving her. Rufus has decided to volunteer for the mission at hand: finding the supposedly-kidnapped Isabel Floode. He does this because his hero, Zaq, is involved, and Rufus will do just about anything to work with his idol. Rufus is the apprentice archetype, learning from an exciting if flawed mentor. 

Zaq is a famous journalist who made his name by taking a perspective that others didn't see in a story in and writing about it. His most famous stories, the ones that helped launch his career, were about the prostitutes that he befriended at Bar Beach.