The Clinic

Cara Morse is one of the two narrators and protagonists of The Clinic. She is the manager of the Clinic and, like Meg, is working to solve the mystery of Haley’s death. She is described as having a “long nose” and “blue eyes” with “pin-sharp makeup and Marilyn Monroe styled waves” (19)—a physical description that positions her as a foil to the other narrator, Meg. The two also differ markedly in demeanor, as Cara is typically cautious and polite. Despite this, Cara’s narrative voice is frequently judgmental, a trait the novel ultimately associates with her insecurity.

Cara’s unease stems partly from her awareness of the elite social circle she is moving in at the Clinic. Although Cara tries to disguise her humble roots, Meg notices that she has a “Maine accent […] with a schoolmistress edge to it” (67). However, Cara’s defining characteristic is her shame about the events that led her to the Clinic: an affair with the married head of the hotel chain she worked for that caused Cara and her boss to go viral as “Plain Jane and Mr. Beaumont” (219). Cara was also demoted to management at a “vagrant hotel.” Cara was traumatized by the media attention and is ashamed of this last post, and she expects others to understand the situation the same way she does. In the second half, however, Officer Meyers reveals that Cara’s skillful management revived the hotel. Cara is pleased with Meyers’s assessment, which bolsters the developing confidence that allows her to take a more active role in the mystery.

Although Cara is one of The Clinic’s protagonists, the novel’s ending suggests that she might not be fully trustworthy. She admits to Hanson and Meyers that she plans on continuing Lutz’s “unethical” inflation of test prices to secure more insurance money for the Clinic. She also reveals to the reader that she retained a stash of fugu to develop her own treatment. In explaining this, Cara explicitly connects herself with the novel’s antagonist, saying, “I’ve learned a few things from Dr. Lutz” (428). The novel leaves it to the reader to decide whether Cara’s increased willingness to bend the rules signals character growth or moral slippage.

Haley Banks is a country singer and the sister of narrator and protagonist Meg. Her apparent death at the Clinic sets off the action of the novel, but the final chapters reveal that Haley is still alive and has been living in disguise as Jade. The relationship between these two identities reflects the novel’s interest in celebrity culture in the United States. 

Haley is described as a “blond, blue-eyed princess” with “lithe little curves” and the same “arched brows and an elf-like slant to [her] eyes and cheekbones” as Meg (6). This physical description serves as implicit characterization: Haley’s seemingly all-American exterior conceals an extensive capacity for manipulation and deceit that her “elf-like” eyes suggest (like her sister, she is described as a “sociopath” by Dr. Lutz). Indeed, while Haley gained fame as a country singer, Meg notes that Haley is “about as far from southern country girl as it was possible to get: educated at an LA stage school and mostly raised between Europe, New York, and Hollywood” (164). The juxtaposition between Haley’s appearance and the reality of her background suggests that celebrity culture is based on illusion rather than the celebrity’s true identity.

Haley works with Dr. Lutz to fake her death and start a new identity as a young English actress named Jade. She explains to Meg that she chose to fake her death because she saw no other way to maintain her fame. Unlike Haley’s arched eyebrows and sharp cheekbones, Jade has “round features” and a “buttery voice and sweet brown eyes” (79). Ironically, when Meg meets Jade, she describes her as a “heart-on-her-sleeve type with zero capacity to hide her feelings” (104). The fact that Meg cannot recognize her sister in disguise suggests that Dr. Lutz’s process works and that Haley may have a future as an actress.

Max Reynolds is the primary psychologist at the Clinic and a love interest for protagonist Cara Morse. Although he is presented as an ally to Cara for most of the novel, he is involved in Dr. Lutz’s illegal development of a drug using fugu, a fish that is banned in the United States. At the end of the novel, he is incarcerated for his crimes. Max’s characterization reflects the novel’s thematic interest in the difficulty of discerning a person’s true nature. Max is described as a “preposterously aristocratic” Englishman with “broad shoulders and [a] handsome face” (60). His good looks and polished demeanor earn him Cara’s respect, as does his apparent devotion to his work: Cara describes Max as “completely dedicated to helping people” (126). Max’s dedication to his patients leads Cara to believe that he is committed to uncovering Dr. Lutz’s crimes. For instance, she claims to have “the strangest feeling Max wants me to take a look” at the Clinic’s finances (128). This belief in Max’s goodness inspires her to take a more active role in the investigation.

In the novel’s final chapters, however, Max admits that he intentionally joined Dr. Lutz’s clinic because he needed Lutz’s “criminal connections” to source the fugu needed for his medical research. Max attempts to explain his complicity in Lutz’s crimes by emphasizing his care for patients, telling Cara that people struggling with addiction cannot wait for treatments to clear bureaucratic red tape. Cara accepts this explanation, but Meg rejects it, arguing that he “put everyone at risk and allied with a really shady criminal” merely to satisfy his own ego (418), saying that he wanted to be “the big man changing the world” (418). Meg and Cara’s disagreement about Max’s motives suggests that it is difficult to fully understand another person’s moral character.