{"id":2119,"date":"2023-12-19T21:11:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T21:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wessmongojolley.com\/home\/?p=2119"},"modified":"2023-12-19T23:25:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T23:25:56","slug":"tlhoc-character-sketches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wessmongojolley.com\/home\/2023\/12\/19\/tlhoc-character-sketches\/","title":{"rendered":"TLHOC Character Sketches"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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TLHOC Character Sketches<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The novel contains more than fifty named characters, of which seventeen serve as point-of-view characters, creating a vivid, immersive world for the reader. Following is a list of all characters with at least one point-of-view scene.<\/p>

The Dead:<\/strong><\/h2>

Richard Pratt (57 at the time of his death, three days before the story begins):<\/strong> A professor of Linguistics at the University of Utah, the story begins with his murder: a single shot to the head, fired through his living room window.\u00a0 The shot kills him instantly, and he dies in in his husband\u2019s arms. Three days later, Richard escapes the place he only knows as \u201cThe Void,\u201d and begins his adventure into the netherworld of the living and the dead known in the novel as \u201cThe Hereafter.\u201d\u00a0 Haunted by regret and guilt, we follow Richard as he attempts to right wrongs while he still can.<\/p>

Billy Travers (15 at the time of his death in 1857):<\/strong> A young and idealistic boy when he and his family set off from their home in the Midwest for the gold fields of California, Billy Travers falls in love with Frances, the oldest daughter of the family he meets on the Oregon Trail.\u00a0 But an accident on the plains of Wyoming crushes Billy\u2019s ankle, and he dies of sepsis just as his family enters the Salt Lake Valley.\u00a0 Like Richard a century and a half later, Billy is trapped in the Hereafter, and becomes a friend, confessor, and sage to Richard; much wiser than the innocent 15-year-old boy he was the year he died.\u00a0<\/p>

Justin Kimball (18 at the time of his death, 22 years before the time of our story):<\/strong> Justin is a young student at the University of Utah who had an ill-fated affair with his professor, Richard Pratt.\u00a0 Richard\u2019s betrayal and Justin\u2019s violent death have turned him into a ghost that is filled with rage and consumed with a need for revenge.<\/p>

Justin has become one of the key disciples of The Wanderer, a dark and mythic figure who is bent on destruction of the Salt Lake Valley.\u00a0 Justin\u2019s destiny is complicated, not only by his fury and unresolved feelings for Richard Pratt, but also by a deep obsession with Howard Gunderson; the boy he possessed as a tool to kill his old professor.<\/p>

Mattie Sowersby (8 at the time of her death in 1857):<\/strong> Mattie is the younger sister of Frances Sowersby, whom Billy fell in love with before his death.\u00a0 A strange and shy girl, Mattie nurtured a crush on Billy during the brief time she knew him, before his accident.\u00a0 But she doesn\u2019t realize that Billy\u2019s ghost is still watching over her and her family later that summer when a pair of rogue bandits from a passing wagon train murder her entire family.\u00a0 She returns three days later, another prisoner of The Hereafter.\u00a0 But the trauma of her murder, and the fact that she returns and finds herself trapped in the cabin with the rotting bodies of herself and her family, conspire to permanently destroy Mattie\u2019s sanity.\u00a0 By the time she is freed from the cabin she has become easy pickings for The Wanderer, who calls her \u201cPrincess\u201d and makes her one of the prime instruments of his vengeance.<\/p>

The Wanderer (78 at the time of his death in 1847):<\/strong> George Drouillard (aka \u201cThe Wanderer\u201d), is based on an actual historical figure.\u00a0 Drouillard was a guide for the Lewis and Clark expeditions, and a mountain man who, history tells us, died in 1810.\u00a0 However, for this story, George Drouillard faked his death in the Montana wilderness that year, and wandered into the Great Basin, where he was adopted by a tribe of Goshutes.\u00a0 There he met Tuilla, a widow with several children, who became his wife.\u00a0 It is the Goshute that give Drouillard the name \u201cThe Wanderer,\u201d and in the last decades of his life, he becomes a respected elder of the tribe.\u00a0<\/p>

But in 1847, Drouillard, his family, and many elders and children of his tribe are killed by a marauding band of Mormons, led by Porter Rockwell.\u00a0 This, too, is based on an actual incident in Utah history, in which a posse of Mormons took vengeance on the Goshutes for allegedly stealing their horses.\u00a0 The massacre is so brutal, and Drouillard\u2019s rage is so great, that his death causes a bubble to form between the world of the dead and the world of the living.\u00a0 From within that bubble, which comes to be known as \u201cThe Hereafter,\u201d Drouillard snags the souls of the dead that will help him take his vengeance upon the people who he blames for the death of his family and tribe.\u00a0<\/p>

In 1969, The Wanderer possesses the body of a young boy named Sutton Deary, and by the time of our story, Deary has grown into a 62-year-old Corporal in the US Military, working as the head of security for the West Desert Test Facility.\u00a0 He has forgotten much about his origins, but not his hatred for everyone and everything in the Salt Lake Valley.<\/p>

Tuilla (82 at the time of her death in 1847):<\/strong> Tuilla is the Goshute wife of The Wanderer and is caught up with him as the Hereafter is created.\u00a0 Tuilla is a wise, compassionate, and mysterious figure, who helps Richard and Billy as they struggle to save the Salt Lake Valley from the wrath of her deceased husband.\u00a0 Early on she befriends Billy and later identifies Richard as The Disruptor: the ghost whose power can save the entire Salt Lake Valley from The Wanderer\u2019s vengeance.<\/p>

The Living:<\/strong><\/h2>

Keith Woo (32):<\/strong>\u00a0 Richard\u2019s husband of ten years (and twenty-five years his junior), Keith is a quiet, shy, bookish man who is content to write poems in his journal and shelve books at the Marriot Library on the University of Utah Campus.\u00a0 Physically, Keith is short and round, with a soft face and gentle manner.\u00a0 After experiencing the murder of his lover in his arms, Keith struggles with depression and despair.\u00a0 But there is also a quiet strength and a level of introspection and introversion that helps him navigate his grief.\u00a0 His love and his faith in Richard are nearly enough to bridge the world of the living and the dead.<\/p>

Michelle Kilani (33):<\/strong> Keith\u2019s best friend since high school, Michelle has long been Keith\u2019s self-appointed protector and confessor.\u00a0 The two have always been inseparable, even when Michelle returned early from her LDS Mission to Hawaii, towing her new fianc\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>

Michelle has never really trusted Keith\u2019s husband Richard, both because she sees him as arrogant and unapproachable, and because he was more than twice Keith\u2019s age when the two men started dating.\u00a0 She\u2019s done her best to be supportive of Keith\u2019s life choices, but sometimes struggles to keep her opinions about Richard to herself.<\/p>

Pi\u2019ilani (Pil) Kilani (38):<\/strong> Pil met Michelle in Hawaii, when he was working as a performer at the Polynesian Culture Center.\u00a0 Pil is huge Maori man, weighing over 400 pounds, and is over six and a half feet tall. An intimidating presence, with his long, curly black hair, and his thick arms and chest completely covered with traditional Maori tattoos, his appearance belies the fact that he is among the gentlest of men.\u00a0 He\u2019s been a devoted husband to Michelle, and is best known for his love of cats, which seem to gravitate to him wherever he goes.\u00a0 He\u2019s exceptionally fond of Keith, to a degree that makes Michelle wonder if there might be feelings between the men that verge on the romantic.\u00a0 He is not as mistrustful of Richard as his wife is, but recognizes that he, Michelle, and Keith make up a family that Richard was never really a part of.<\/p>

Howard Gunderson (20):<\/strong> There is something mystical, and almost holy, about Howard Gunderson.\u00a0 Howard is the boy who shot Richard Pratt, in an incident that he can\u2019t remember.\u00a0 One moment he is just a happy 20-year-old guy, still living at home with his parents, and then, after a night of joy riding with his friends, he wakes up on the lawn of a strange house, accused of murdering a man he has never met. \u00a0He is determined to discover what has really happened to him, but is unaware that he has a powerful adversary of his own.\u00a0 One who wants to possess him, body and soul.\u00a0 And one whose destiny is inextricably tied up with his own.<\/p>

Carla Grayson (47):<\/strong>\u00a0 Detective Carla Grayson is the officer assigned to investigate the murder of Richard Pratt.\u00a0 During her investigation, she bonds with Howard Gunderson, the accused murderer.\u00a0 Carla is a widow with no children, but a strong matronly instinct that is triggered by Howard\u2019s air of confusion and vulnerability.\u00a0 She makes it her goal to understand what happened to this strange boy, but she never dreams where that quest will take her.<\/p>

Bradley Seward (40):<\/strong>\u00a0 Bradley is a pilot working out of Dugway and the West Desert Test Center. \u00a0He brings his wife and two young girls into town for a weekend, which starts with a movie at a local multiplex.\u00a0 Like Howard Gunderson, Bradley is possessed, and over the course of a few brief minutes he massacres a dozen teenagers in the dark theater.\u00a0 Like Howard, he doesn\u2019t know what happened, but unlike Howard, Bradley takes his own life once he realizes what he has done. Unfortunately, the escape is brief, as The Wanderer calls him back to the Hereafter.<\/p>

Morgan Jensen (38):<\/strong>\u00a0 Morgan is a hard-hitting and driven local reporter with a Salt Lake City television station.\u00a0 She and her cameraman are witness to the slow unraveling of life in Salt Lake City, as the Wanderer enacts his vengeance.\u00a0 Her fate comes to a head on the roof of the Wells Fargo Building, where her actions might spell life or death for hundreds of thousands.<\/p>

Susan Jarvis (36):<\/strong>\u00a0 Sutton Deary\u2019s secretary in his office in the West Desert Test Center, Susan has no idea that her boss is not who he appears to be, and that he has devised a role for her in the destruction of the Salt Lake Valley.<\/p>

Gerry Anderson (46):<\/strong>\u00a0 After the city is put under quarantine, Corporal Gerry Anderson oversees a roadblock on Interstate-80, just outside of Salt Lake.\u00a0 His job is to ensure that nobody leaves the Salt Lake Valley.\u00a0 But he does not know that he and his unit stand between The Wanderer and his quarry.\u00a0<\/p>

Gus Humphreys (55 in 1857):<\/strong>\u00a0 Gus Humphreys is the trail boss for the cowhands of the Fancher Train, which is passing through Utah in 1857.\u00a0 Against his better judgement, Gus provides refuge for a disaffected Mormon \u201cbackout,\u201d looking to escape the Salt Lake Valley.\u00a0 This leads to tragic results.\u00a0 Although Gus plays a small part in this story, he is the protagonist of a planned sequel.<\/p>

Jacob Stauffer (28 in 1857):<\/strong> Known as \u201cThe Backout,\u201d Jacob Stauffer is a disaffected Mormon whose wife has been stolen from him by a high-ranking Mormon official. \u00a0He goes into hiding to escape the Danites, Brigham Young\u2019s secret enforcers, who are known to murder \u201cbackout\u201d Mormons who attempt to leave the Church.\u00a0<\/p>

Stauffer gets caught up in the murder of the Sowersby family along with another cowhand, who goes by the name of \u201cThe Dutchman.\u201d\u00a0 It is Dutch who leads Stauffer into his participation in a monstrous crime.\u00a0<\/p>

Both of these characters play a larger role in a planned sequel.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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TLHOC Character Sketches The novel contains more than fifty named characters, of which seventeen serve as point-of-view characters, creating a vivid, immersive world for the reader. Following is a list of all characters with at least one point-of-view scene. The Dead: Richard Pratt (57 at the time of his death, three days before the story … <\/p>\n

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