55 pages • 1-hour read
The Expats
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Character Analysis
Kate Moore
Kate Moore is the protagonist of The Expats. The narrative is exclusively filtered through her perspective, allowing the reader to understand the actions and motivations of the characters around her as she comes to realize them. Kate is a retired analyst for the CIA, though she previously worked as a field agent assigned to liaise with foreign leaders across Latin America. In most cases, her objectives ensured that these countries would cooperate with the US agenda for continental development, though sometimes this would force her to commit acts of espionage, intrusion, and—in some cases—murder. These skills become useful to her in her post-career life once she realizes that her husband, Dexter, and her new friends, Bill and Julia Maclean, may be involved in questionable business.
Kate entered the CIA immediately after finishing college. She believed that she could not form substantial attachments with anyone, owing to the untimely death of her parents and her estrangement from her only living relative, a sister with a drug and alcohol addiction. This assumption changed when Kate met Dexter. Their romance resulted in marriage, and they went on to have two children named Jake and Ben. Because Kate had initially assumed that their relationship would not last, she kept her employment with the CIA from him. She claimed to work for a government think tank, writing position papers on various advocacies. Later on, this became hard to turn back from, especially as she became increasingly guilty about some of her actions as a field agent.
Kate is haunted by the unsanctioned murder of failed Mexican presidential candidate Eduardo Torres, largely because she was discovered by a woman who is heavily implied to have been Torres’s romantic partner and the mother of his child. Torres threatened Kate by showing her a picture of her and Jake. Kate took this threat seriously and immediately moved to infiltrate his hotel suite and assassinate him. She seemed to have shown mercy to the woman at first, but it is revealed toward the end of the novel that she shot her as well. She never discloses this last murder to anyone, including Dexter, even after she confesses her involvement with the CIA to him. Following the murder, she transitioned from field work to a new role as an analyst.
Throughout the novel, Kate struggles to settle into early retirement and domestic life. Killing Torres to protect her family signaled the start of Kate’s commitment to her home life. She agrees to Dexter’s proposal to move to Luxembourg because she believes she can complete that transition and commit wholeheartedly to Dexter and her children. However, because Dexter is always at work, Kate becomes increasingly frustrated with domestic life and yearns for the life she had while working for the CIA.
At first, this causes her to doubt whether she is investigating Dexter and the Macleans because they are involved in shady affairs, or because she simply yearns for the thrill of espionage once again. When she confirms that the Macleans are investigating Dexter, she utilizes her skills of deception and subterfuge to protect him. Two years later, she comes to realize that Julia had masterminded Dexter’s robbery of 25 million euros and confronts her and Bill over dinner. She is prepared to either have them arrested in exchange for her old job or kill them in self-defense. However, when she realizes that Julia is pregnant with Bill’s child, she lets them go, attempting to redeem herself after killing Torres’s partner.
Julia Maclean/Susan Pognowski
Julia Maclean is the central antagonist of The Expats. Born Susan Pognowski, she adopted the name Julia Maclean as part of a cover to investigate Kate Moore’s husband, Dexter. It is revealed late in the novel that Julia and Dexter knew each other in college. While they remained friends throughout their studies, they moved around different social circles, making it difficult for anyone to know that they maintained a substantial relationship.
Julia began working for the FBI and was assigned to investigate the emerging field of cybercrime. When she saw the opportunity to get rich from similar types of elaborate schemes, she began looking for a partner who could handle the technical aspects of the operation. This is when she reunited with Dexter, whom she began manipulating into working with her. In reality, Dexter was only one of several candidates whom Julia attempted to enlist in her scheme. When Dexter discovered a foolproof method to hijack financial transactions, Julia extended an offer to him. Her manipulation did not end there; she gave him false information on the target she had identified, a Serbian arms dealer named Colonel Petrovic, and anonymously informed Dexter that the colonel had been involved in the death of Dexter’s older brother, Daniel, so that Dexter would accept her offer out of the desire for vengeance.
Julia often tries to let her ends justify the means. She gives Dexter false information because he wouldn’t have agreed to her plans otherwise, and she tells Dexter the truth about Kate’s work so that he will keep their plans secret from her. She similarly influences Kate’s secret investigation of their operation, feeding her clues to prevent interference. This establishes Julia’s character as a mastermind, whose key skill is manipulation; even when she enters the narrative by trying to become Kate’s friend, she is working through several layers of subterfuge, pretending that she is authentically trying to solve the case for the FBI.
It is ambiguous whether her relationship with Bill is authentic or not. When they first appear in the narrative, they are only professionally attached to each other as assignment partners. However, after Julia is humiliated by the closing of her investigation on Dexter, she resigns, prompting Bill to follow. When they reappear in Paris, they tell Dexter and Kate that they are engaged. Kate soon deduces that they are expecting a child and that they need the money that Dexter has stolen to live a life on the run. Rather than give them what they want, however, Kate leverages their freedom to overcome them.
Dexter Moore
Dexter Moore, Kate’s husband, is a security systems specialist with a background in computer science. He had previously used his skills in the financial services sector before joining Julia’s scheme to rob a Serbian arms dealer named Colonel Petrovic. Dexter was manipulated under the assumption that the colonel killed his brother, Daniel. Though Daniel had been ex-military, his mercenary activities as a consultant led to his death while Dexter was still in college. Dexter begins conceptualizing a method to hijack one of Colonel Petrovic’s transactions and redirect his funds, humiliating him in front of his business partners. He later executes a plan to migrate to Luxembourg with his family by establishing a business in the duchy and purchasing a farmhouse that they can escape to in case of emergency.
Dexter is characterized as a cautious expert. He is aware of all the faults that one could exploit to infiltrate a security system, regardless of whether those weaknesses are technological or psychological. He often discusses the ideas around his job in front of others, but he keeps the precise nature of his work secret from Kate. This leads her to suspect that Dexter is involved in something illicit. However, Dexter is deliberately secretive; Julia reveals Kate’s background as a former CIA agent to leverage his discretion. When Kate confronts him, Dexter admits the truth and earns Kate’s support, enabling her to help him evade arrest by staging a confession that will close the case against him.
However, Kate doesn’t realize that Dexter has hidden one more piece of information from her: his collaboration with Julia. Kate only discovers this two years later when she looks through Dexter’s college yearbook and recognizes Julia under the name Susan Pognowski. This prompts her to expose how Julia had been manipulating Dexter all along, a discovery that both offends him and reveals his gullibility.
Bill Maclean/Craig Malloy
Bill Maclean, born Craig Malloy, is a supporting antagonist and the romantic interest of Julia. As an agent of the FBI, Bill is assigned to partner with Julia on a cybercrime case involving the theft of 50 million euros. He investigates Julia’s primary suspect—a security systems expert named Dexter Moore—while posing as a currency trader married to Julia.
Bill is characterized as an athletic, attractive man. He often engages in romantic trysts with other women, which is why Kate Moore initially suspects that he is having an affair. However, Bill spends more time with Dexter, often playing tennis with him, which causes Kate to suspect that Bill may be observing Dexter for reasons that are not yet clear to her. When Kate feeds information to her contacts in the CIA, allowing her to become gradually more aware of the Macleans’ true identities, they confront her and reveal the nature of their investigation in the hopes that she will cooperate. During this confrontation, Kate mentions that Dexter is suspected of stealing 25 million euros, not 50 million. At this point, Bill begins to suspect that Julia may be involved in Dexter’s activities.
Bill doesn’t confront Julia about his suspicions, but when Dexter’s case is closed and Julia resigns from the FBI, Bill follows her, and they begin a romantic affair. When they find Kate and Dexter living in Paris, Bill and Julia are engaged and expecting a child. They try to coerce Kate and Dexter into handing over the stolen money so that they can live a life on the run. Kate quietly interprets Bill’s motivations, unsure if Bill manipulated Julia into including him in the scheme, or if he is authentically in love with her. In any case, Kate offers them their freedom, allowing them to escape as fugitives from the law.
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