The Night Shift

Chris Ford—formerly Chris Whitaker—is one of the novel’s three protagonists. He is an attorney in the public defender’s office, and he is also the younger brother of Vine, the suspect in the Blockbuster murders. In contrast to his upper-crust girlfriend, who is a corporate lawyer, Chris sees himself as a “no money, wrong side of the tracks in Linden, New Jersey, defender of street thugs” (72). His character is significantly shaped by his own trauma, most of which he gained from enduring an extremely abusive father. The scars caused by his father, Rusty, are both literal and metaphorical and serve to examine The Various Forms and Effects of Abuse. Two other sources of trauma for Chris include his belief the perceived abandonment of his mother and the loss of his brother Vince, whom Chris believes has been a fugitive ever since he was accused in the Blockbuster case 15 years ago. Chris has changed his last name from Whitaker to Ford in an attempt to erase his traumatic past, but as the story unfolds, he feels a contradictory need to confront his past. The events incited by the Creamery killings push him to do so, which opens the door to healing. He eventually learns that neither his mother nor his brother have abandoned him. His brother is proven innocent, and his father is arrested for murder.

Chris’s work as a public defender, advocating for the most vulnerable incarcerated clients, allows him to fulfill his mostly subconscious desire to fight against injustice. He inwardly believes that his brother is innocent, and although he could not help Vince as a child, he now feels that he may be in a position to help exonerate his brother, if only he can find him. Chris also sees a bit of Vince in Jesse, and he therefore sees the possibility of her innocence. The desire to defend her against injustice spurs him to volunteer to represent her. With this decision, Chris’s character arc moves him from apathy in his work to a renewed belief in its value.

The idea of nirvana symbolizes another source of healing for Chris. Years ago, Vince dreamed that the two of them would escape their abusive childhood, and he called their new life of freedom “nirvana.” Now, Chris obsessively follows an anonymous travel vlogger who calls himself Mr. Nirvana. Chris believes that Mr. Nirvana is Vince, and he uses clues from the vlog in an attempt to find and reunite with his brother. Although this hope is never realized, it is a therapeutic hope that allows him to gain the emotional strength to confront and process the reality of Vince’s death. In the book’s resolution, Chris becomes a travel vlogger himself, and thus, the narrative suggests that he has found his own Nirvana.

FBI Agent Sarah Keller is another of the three protagonists. Finlay refers to her as Keller, although he uses first names for the other protagonists. This characterization technique emphasizes her role in law enforcement and the unique culture within those fields. Keller embodies both the hero and the mentor archetypes, and the latter is expressed through her relationship with Atticus, the young investigator assigned to work with her. Keller is characterized in a wholly positive light. She is eight months pregnant with twins, and she is also an extremely competent agent who is dedicated to her work. She is professional, open-minded, and humble, and the dynamics of her marriage are portrayed as being ideal. Her actions also reveal her innate compassion. For example, she “risks a long, irrelevant detour” (150) by asking Candy’s mother to talk about Candy because “she feels like Ms. O’Shaughnessy needs it” (150). In another example of Keller’s compassion, she risks her own safety by interrupting a SWAT raid in order to protect a young man with autism.

Although Keller is assigned merely to rule out the suspect from the Blockbuster case, not to investigate the Creamery murders, her motivation is still a fervent desire to find the killer guilty of both sets of murders. She ultimately triumphs in this conflict, although the endeavor claims the life of her new partner. Identifying Mr. Steadman as the killer plays an important role in healing the wounds of the community and of the other main characters. Keller’s lack of apparent flaws and her cursory history make her a minimally complex character, and she is also relatively static. Without flaws, there is no need for transformation and therefore no significant arc. Her investigative work merely serves to drive the plot forward, and her discoveries enable Finlay’s examination of The Deceptive Nature of Public Personas, as when the wholesome and harmless high school principal is revealed to be a brutal killer. 

Jesse Duvall is a main character who is nearly as central to the story as the three protagonists, but the story is never narrated from a perspective focused on her. She is a high school student who transferred to Union High at the start of the school year because of an undisclosed incident at her prior school. Now, Jesse is the sole survivor of a mass murder similar to the one that Ella survived 15 years ago. She is characterized as cynical and distrusting but resilient. In a sense, Jesse represents the shapeshifter archetype, a character who blurs the line between ally and enemy. In this genre, ambiguous characterization is used as a form of misdirection in order to sow seeds of suspicion about the identity of the killer. Jesse’s intentions and true nature are difficult to interpret based on how she presents herself to the protagonists. The narrative suggests that her actions can be read as either the results of trauma or as signs of psychopathy, and this ambiguity is meant to create tension and suspense. Unlike many shapeshifter characters, however, Jesse proves herself to be an innocent ally, not an enemy in the guise of a friend.

Jesse’s stated motivation is to become a journalist. Subtext depicting her life, history, and actions suggests an underlying motivation for this passion; her adoptive parents died and she has been in the foster care system for years. She is bullied at school; and she is nearly murdered in a mass killing. Jesse’s primary motivation at this point in her life is to survive. Her reasoning for researching the Blockbuster case in the first place is initially presented as questionable at best, until she reveals that a victim in that case—Katie—is her birth mother. Given her background, Jesse needs to make sense of the case in order to understand her own past and identity.

Jesse’s experiences significantly develop the novel’s portrayal of The Struggle to Heal the Legacy of Trauma. Everything she has been through, including being sexually abused by a former teacher, profoundly reshapes her. The coping mechanisms that she adopts evoke suspicion and initially seem like possible signs of an antisocial personality. She shoplifts, fights, engages in dangerous, thrill-seeking behaviors like “train-catching,” and has feuds with other teenage girls. Through the character of Jesse, Finlay emphasizes The Deceptive Nature of Public Personas and delivers a broader warning against making unfounded assumptions.

Dale Steadman—usually referred to as Mr. Steadman because he is a high school principal—is the story’s hidden antagonist. He is the killer who murders groups of teenagers on at least two occasions. Because he has kept his crimes secret for so long, he is characterized as a metaphorical wolf in sheep’s clothing, embodying The Deceptive Nature of Public Personas. The version of himself that he presents to others makes him seem wholly good and incapable of harming anyone. When Keller visits his office, she sees a bulletin board with enthusiastic and grateful messages from students, such as, “I wouldn’t have made it without you. I owe my admission to Princeton to you. Team Steadman!” (44). Ella describes him from her time in high school by calling him “[t]he cool teacher. Young, good-looking. The one the moms fawned over. At the same time, he was capable, no-nonsense, the kind of person who you wanted in charge” (11). He cultivates this endearing persona to hide the fact that he sexually abuses high school girls, is emotionally unstable, and has murdered at least seven people. His relationships with the girls he molests and his exploitive relationship with Ella after her tragedy epitomize The Various Forms and Effects of Abuse.

Atticus Singh is a junior investigator assigned to work with Keller in the wake of the Creamery killings. He is also the archetypal ally character. He helps Keller to work the case and identify the killer, and his insights and strong work ethic make him an ideal partner. Within the thriller genre, this character archetype is sometimes known as the colleague. Atticus is favorably characterized through Keller’s impressions of him, for she states, “Atticus is sharp. Analytical. […] And he has something you can’t teach most young law-enforcement professionals—he doesn’t need to hear himself talk” (116). He is likable and therefore has no apparent flaws to complicate the storyline. Acting as a side-kick, he is a relatively flat and static character. His functions in the story are to support Keller’s efforts to identify and thwart the killer and to elevate the importance of Keller’s victory through his own death.