Tourist Season

Nolan Rhodes is another of the novel’s main characters. He is the male romantic lead and Harper’s enemy and love interest. Like Harper, Nolan has a dark personal history that informs his character arc in the narrative present. Four years prior to the narrative present, Nolan was involved in a hit-and-run accident that took his younger brother Billy’s life. Nolan still suffers from survivor guilt, and so instead of healing from his trauma, he has compartmentalized his sorrow and resorted to violence instead. He killed the three passengers in the car that hit him and Billy and is determined to hunt down and murder the driver, Harper Starling, too. “Hope and positivity were not what drove [him] to wean [him]self from pain medications” after the accident, “or to relearn to feed [him]self, or to overcome the indignity [he] felt at having others bathe and clothe [him]” (18). Instead, it has been the thirst for revenge that’s motivated Nolan. His bloodthirst ultimately leads him to Cape Carnage, where he becomes immediately enamored with the very woman he has been determined to destroy.

Nolan’s love affair with his archenemy complicates his understanding of himself. He is a more self-reflective and mutable character than Harper, as he consistently meditates on how his past has impacted his present throughout the novel, while Harper tries her best to ignore her past. He openly tries to reconcile the life he has chosen with the man he once was, and the life he might foster for himself instead. His deepening affection for Harper challenges his bloodlust and helps him understand his more fragile side. He still misses his brother, but he realizes that anger, vitriol, and violence can never bring Billy back or heal his heart. Even Harper’s familiarity with pain and loss contributes to Nolan’s personal growth. He understands she has suffered greatly, too, and that she needs love and healing. Her experience grants him perspective on his own journey toward healing from past trauma, and his attraction to her makes him consider how he might take a different path in the future.

Nolan is also a charming and attractive character whose innate magnetism ignites his and Harper’s unexpected relationship. Harper knows to be wary of Nolan when they first meet, but she finds it impossible to ignore his beauty: “Shades of honey blond streak the rich brown strands that skim his cheekbones, the kind of color that can only come from time spent in the sun. He’s magnetic. And a whole hell of a lot of…dangerous” (22). While Nolan’s physicality draws Harper to him, ultimately it is his care, intuition, and attentiveness that sustain his and Harper’s relationship.

Nolan is a complex character who exhibits a willingness to change and treats Harper with respect and love. At the same time, he has difficulty suspending disbelief and hiding his hurt when he discovers the truth about Harper. These unresolved emotional strands of his story sustain the mystery surrounding his future for the subsequent titles in the Seasons of Carnage trilogy.

Arthur Lancaster is a secondary character. He is Harper’s landlord and benefactor, and he is also a powerful name in Cape Carnage. He owns most of the businesses and properties in the town and has respect and a reputation throughout the community. Despite how positively people regard Arthur, he is a serial killer. Harper is the only one who knows his secret. He discovered Harper trying to kill a tourist who was harassing young girls when she first came to Carnage; noticing a likeness between them, he took pity on her and invited her to his home at Lancaster Manor. He then tasked her with helping keep Carnage pleasant and peaceful. Harper assumes his role as resident killer—singling out misbehaving Carnage visitors and disappearing and murdering them for disturbing the peace.

Harper deeply cares about Arthur, who acts as a father figure and guide for her, offering her a path forward at a time when she is traumatized and terrified. Despite Arthur’s dubious past, Harper is gracious and attentive. She does everything in her power to protect and care for him, giving him credibility in the narrative despite his many faults and crimes. Because Harper can see his humanity, he is established in the narrative as a trustworthy figure. Arthur’s paternal role in Harper’s life is illustrated by his care for her, but the narrative goes even further: Because he is living with dementia, he often confuses Harper for his late daughter, Poppy Lancaster. Harper can’t erase Arthur’s loss, but she does offer him familial comfort.

Sam Porter is a secondary character. He is an amateur documentarian and detective. He runs the popular internet forum Sleuthseekers, an online community that tries to solve cold cases. Sam arrives in Cape Carnage, eager to solve the mystery of the elusive serial killer La Plume. He also suspects that Autumn Bower “went missing in Cape Carnage” and guesses that “La Plume killed her here too” (45). Sam’s appearance in town disrupts Harper’s peace. He is a threat to her carefully curated facade. She fears he’ll go digging for answers, excavate her past, and discover the truth of her and Arthur’s illicit activities. In the meantime, she fears he will also tie her to Nolan and discover his litany of crimes, and her attempts to avoid Sam’s detection fuel the plot.

Sam is an atypical antagonist. While characters like Harper, Nolan, and Arthur are more categorically “wicked,” it is Sam’s determination to expose the primary characters’ crimes that causes narrative tension. Harper and Nolan end up working together to bring Sam down in order to protect themselves; they defeat him by killing him at the Lancaster Distillery after he apprehends Nolan, successfully overcoming their common enemy.