The Water Keeper

The Water Keeper (2020) is a Christian thriller by Charles Martin. It tells the story of Murph Shepherd, who works with the government to track down women and children who have been kidnapped. One day, he meets a girl named Angel who has been lured onto a yacht run by human traffickers. He then meets her mother, Summer, and the two race against time to save Angel and the other kidnapped girls. As Murph and Summer fall in love, the novel explores The Healing Power of Love, The Lasting Impact of Trauma, and Valuing the Individual in the Fight Against Evil.

This guide refers to the 2021 Thomas Nelson paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, child death, death by suicide, graphic violence, sexual violence, child sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty, addiction, and substance use.

Plot Summary

Murphy “Murph” Shepherd lives in an abandoned chapel on a small island near Jacksonville, Florida. He works for an unnamed government organization to track human traffickers across the United States.

One day, a young girl knocks on his chapel door. She is drugged and only 16. However, she insists that she is fine, so Murph puts his number into her phone in case she needs it. She gets onto a yacht with several other young girls.

Murph has two urns on his kitchen table: the ashes of his wife, Marie, and those of his mentor Fingers. (It is later revealed that Fingers is fictional and that the urn contains the ashes of a series of books that Murph has written under his real name, David Bishop.) Now, he plans to head south to spread the ashes. Murph starts sailing to Key West. He comes across a dog swimming and brings him along.

In St. Augustine, Murph spots the yacht again, noting that its name is Sea Tenderly. He later overhears a woman arguing on the phone with someone. She calls the person “Angel”—the same name of the girl who came into Murph’s chapel.

The woman steals a small boat. Murph follows her into the ocean, where her boat capsizes. Murph saves her. He tends to her wounds in a hotel room and then leaves her overnight, sensing that she is uncomfortable around him.

When Murph returns the next day, he takes the woman, Summer, to breakfast. She is looking for her daughter, Angel, who got onto a yacht to party for the summer, but she is afraid that something is wrong. She also tells Murph that she is recovering from addiction, largely thanks to a collection of books that she has read over 20 times. She does not know that Murph wrote the books.

When Murph and Summer go to dinner, they lose the dog, who runs off across the city. When they find him, he is licking an unconscious man in a baseball stadium. When the man recovers, he introduces himself as Barclay “Clay” T. Pettybone. He has spent decades in prison and now is headed to the Keys. He tried to let his dog, Gunner, go when he went into the hospital for his cancer treatment. Murph agrees to bring Clay along on his boat.

After Murph and Summer check the now-abandoned Sea Tenderly, Murph explains that there are organizations that go up and down the Florida coast, luring young women onto their yacht. They post their photos and videos online to traffick them. He promises to help Summer, hinting at his history of tracking down human traffickers.

Murph, Summer, and Clay continue along the coast. At the next stop, Clay notices that there is someone hiding in the head of the boat. Inside, Murph finds a young girl named Ellie. She has a picture of Murph, a map of his island, and a safe deposit box key for a bank in Miami. There is a note with it leading them to the Sisters of Mercy convent. Ellie came to Murph looking for her parents, as she has spent her entire life in different foster homes and boarding schools. Although Murph insists that he does not know who she is, he agrees to help her check the bank box.

Murph contacts his mentor Bones. Bones begins tracking the new yacht that Angel got onto. Bones sets them up with a hospital to look at Clay and a hotel. After leaving Clay and Ellie in the hospital, Murph and Summer find the abandoned yacht. They discover videos of the girls with different men, although they only see Angel briefly on the dock. After a brief fight with three men, they make it off the yacht with the hard drives. Murph sends all the information to Bones. He checks the hard drives and realizes that many have the geolocation of a specific house. Murph plans to go there next.

That night in the hotel, Summer explains to Murph how after she injured her ankle, she became dependent on pain medication. She accumulated over $40,000 in debt from a man who helped her. The man then befriended Angel, inviting her onto the yacht for the summer. When Summer protested, her debt was wiped clean. Summer feels guilty, but Murph insists that she and Summer were both likely targeted. The men probably injured Summer intentionally and then facilitated her addiction to get to Angel.

After they both fall asleep, Angel calls, telling them that she has moved to a cabin. Murph has Bones track her location. Angel gives them little information, insisting that she is still enjoying herself, despite how hesitant she sounds. Murph and Summer find the cabin. Just as they arrive, the girls are loaded onto a helicopter. When Murph finds a phone recording him in the trees, he realizes that they were likely set up: Someone allowed Angel to call them so that they could figure out who was tracking her.

Murph takes Ellie to the bank to open the box. Inside is an envelope with a ring that Murph recognizes. Murph still does not fully understand, but he convinces Ellie to stay with them so that they can figure it out. Then, Murph goes to the geolocation from the pictures. They find a young girl there, drugged and on the edge of death. When she recovers in the hospital, she tells them that she was picked up recently with the promise of a modeling job. She recognizes Angel, who saved her life by putting her into a tub of ice before the men abandoned her.

The group continues down to Key West. For several days, Murph is unable to find any new leads. He takes Ellie to the convent, but it closed years before. They find only one woman there, Sister Jane, who has no information for them.

Murph tells Summer and Ellie that he was severely injured in a mission, putting off his wedding to Marie for several months. However, at the reception, his best man revealed that he had been in a relationship with Marie for months when they thought that Murph was not going to recover. Marie fled. Murph found Marie twice, but each time, she abandoned him again, leaving him with only a note. The second time, she recorded a video of herself appearing to die by suicide. Since then, Murph has believed that she is dead.

Murph and Summer decide to use Summer as bait. She walks through the streets of Key West until a man invites her onto his boat. Clay recognizes the man from the yacht, so they set up a plan to have Summer go with the man while tracking her location.

Sister Jane returns to Murph and Ellie, asking them to come back to the convent. She takes them to Marie, who has been sick but alive for all these years. She confesses to Murph that Ellie is their child. They are interrupted by Murph receiving a video of Summer, drugged and on the man’s boat. Leaving Ellie with Marie, Murph goes to find her.

Murph tracks the yacht to the Tortugas. He creates an explosion on the yacht and then subdues several men. He manages to escape with several kidnapped girls but realizes that Angel is not among them. Instead, he sees the man who kidnapped Summer escaping with her on his boat. Murph follows them to Loggerhead Key. He finds Angel but gets into a fight with the man. He survives only after Gunner bites the man and Summer hits him with an oar. The man flees, vowing to go after Ellie.

At the hotel, Murph finds Clay injured and discovers that Ellie has just been taken. Murph tracks them to the man’s apartment. The two fight again, with the man deciding to abandon Murph and Ellie to escape. Clay arrives and subdues him.

Sister Jane then takes Murph and Ellie back to Marie. In her final moments, Marie begs Murph for forgiveness; he insists that there is nothing to forgive. He gives her communion and baptizes her as she dies in his arms.

Several weeks later, Murph and the others have begun to heal. Summer, Angel, Clay, and Ellie travel to Murph’s safe town in Colorado. Murph writes his final novel and then spreads Marie’s ashes in the ocean where they met as children.

Murph goes to Colorado. He reunites with Summer, and the two confess their love for each other. Bones arrives to give Murph another mission. Looking at Summer and the girls, Murph is torn. However, he decides to start his next mission. Clay wants to join him.