64 pages • 2-hour read
The Water Keeper
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Character Analysis
Murphy “Murph” Shepherd/David Bishop
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, and addiction.
Murph is the primary protagonist in The Water Keeper and the first-person point-of-view character. He is a priest yet does not typically practice, as he was recruited by the government years before the start of the novel. He works with an unnamed agency to hunt human traffickers, often traveling around the country to pursue specific girls and women who have been kidnapped. He is brave and courageous, frequently risking his own life to save young women and children.
Although he goes by the name Murph, his real name is David Bishop; after he lost his wife, Marie, he abandoned his real name. Instead, he uses his real name as the author’s name on a series of 13 novels that he has written. The novels tell the story of many of his past missions and his love for Marie. They serve as a source of comfort for him as well as for many readers like Summer, who value the love between Marie and David.
Murph is secretive about his past, keeping it from both the reader and the other characters. For much of the text, the reader only knows that Marie died years before and that he still struggles with the loss. In this way, Murph’s past highlights The Lasting Impact of Trauma. Additionally, each time he goes on a mission to save someone, he records their names as tattoos on his back, forever carrying their story with him. While Murph endures his own trauma, he sets it aside to help Summer, Clay, Ellie, and Angel.
As a dynamic character, Murph changes throughout the course of the novel as he falls in love with Summer and heals from his trauma over Marie’s supposed death. Murph slowly learns to open up about who he is. As he returns to the spot where he first wrote his Bishop novels, he finally tells Ellie and Summer about Marie, marking a change for his character as he finally talks about his past trauma.
Through his love for Summer, Murph finds love again and makes peace with Marie’s (real) death. At the end of the novel, even though Murph goes on a new mission, there is hope that he will receive the love and support from Summer that is necessary to finally heal.
Summer
Summer is a second protagonist in the novel. She is Angel’s mother and falls in love with Murph. The first time Murph sees her, he describes her as frantic and disheveled yet “beautiful.” She is desperately searching for her daughter, Angel, who has been spending the summer on a party yacht and refuses to give Summer any information.
Summer’s internal conflict over her own guilt at Angel’s disappearance is the primary catalyst for the events of the novel. Summer tells Murph that she has struggled with addiction over the last several months, stemming from an injury to her ankle that she treated with pain pills. After accumulating thousands in debt, her debt was cleared by the men who took Angel onto their yacht. She goes looking for Angel despite the dangers involved, recruiting Murph to help her do so.
Like Murph, Summer’s character arc illustrates the theme of trauma. She struggles to open up about her history of addiction and her perceived failings as a mother, finally doing so after she builds a relationship with Murph. In this way, their relationship also develops the theme of The Healing Power of Love. Through their relationship, both Summer and Murph learn to open up about their pasts and confide in each other. They find the emotional support and comfort that they need, learning that they are “worthy” of being loved despite their past mistakes.
Angel
Angel is Summer’s daughter. Her arrival in Murph’s chapel is the inciting incident of the novel, as Murph can tell that she is in danger despite her insistence that she is happy on the yacht. Angel is a flat character who is largely absent from the novel, serving as a source of motivation for Murph and Summer’s actions. However, she is a key component of the theme of Valuing the Individual in the Fight Against Evil. She gives a face to the evil of human trafficking, giving Murph and Summer a personal stake in their pursuit of the yacht. At the conclusion of the novel, Angel has been rescued and begins to heal from the trauma that she experienced.
Barclay “Clay” T. Pettybone
Clay is one of the supporting characters in The Water Keeper. He is a 78-year-old man, is described as “Brazilian or Cuban” by Murph (95), and has white hair. He also has terminal cancer. After killing a white man who abused his wife, Clay spent his life in prison; however, he was released just before the events of the novel due to his illness. He joins Murph on his journey south, hoping to return to Key West to visit his wife’s grave one last time. After Murph gets a doctor for Clay, he begins to look healthier, recovering significantly by the novel’s end. Just like the other characters who join Murph, Clay struggles with his past trauma, grappling with the loss of his life to prison and the death of his wife.
Clay is a key part of Murph’s success in the novel. After spending days serving drinks along the coast of Florida, Clay spent time on the yacht with Angel, and he provides valuable information to Murph about the men who kidnapped Angel. Additionally, in the novel’s climax, he overcomes his illness, his injuries, and his advanced age to stop the man who kidnapped Angel and Ellie, punching him in the face and subduing him for the police. As such, Clay is a hero in the novel, providing Murph with help where he least expected it.
Although Clay is a secondary character in The Water Keeper, he will become a main character in future novels in Martin’s Keeper series. At the end of the novel, he joins Murph on his next mission. Then, in future novels, he becomes Murph’s partner, working alongside him as he continues to pursue kidnapped children.
Bones
Bones is Murph’s mentor and partner, serving as his key point of contact with Freetown, the community they established for people they save from human trafficking. He is largely absent from the novel, present only in phone calls that Murph makes for help on his mission. Bones’s character is shrouded in mystery, with the reader knowing only that he is a practicing priest who took Murph under his wing and trained him. For Murph, Bones serves as the unlimited source of wealth, knowledge, and supplies, allowing him to complete his missions. He is a representative of the mysterious agency for which Murph works.
The final pages of the novel hint toward a future conflict between Murph and Bones. Bones reveals that he knew that Marie was alive but chose not to share that information with Murph. This decision angers Murph, as he violently chokes and threatens Bones in the cottage at the novel’s end. Although he lets Bones go, he promises that “there might come a day when [Bones] wake[s] up to find [Murphy’s] hands around [his] throat. And when [he does], [he]’ll know that [Murph is] finished with [him]” (337). This ominous warning serves to set up future novels in the Keeper series as the tension between them continues to escalate.
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