Abduction!

Matt Sholter is the deuteragonist of the novel and Bonnie’s younger brother. Matt is a six-year-old who attends kindergarten at Jefferson School and is described as a “cute kid” with “big brown eyes and thick blond hair” (64). He tends to pull on his earlobe when anxious, he loves mac and cheese and strawberry ice cream, and is passionate about baseball. He loves throwing “zingers”—the fastest pitches he can muster when he plays catch with Bonnie.

Matt’s mom, Anita Sholter, has educated him about paying attention to his surroundings and practicing caution and awareness in all situations. However, his knowledge and preparations aren’t infallible, and Denny manipulates him with trickery and lies to abduct him. Matt is a relatively static character; that is, he doesn’t change much over the course of the novel, but he learns valuable lessons. One is that the father he’s wondered about his entire life is a bad person. Another is that the precautions Anita has taught him aren’t just for encounters with strangers but also are for people he might know or who might seem to know him. Matt is similar to Bonnie in that he learns to appreciate his family more through his traumatic experience. These renewed bonds shape their relationships when the family is reunited at the end of the novel.

Denny Thurman is the antagonist of the novel. He and Anita divorced six years prior to the action of the narrative. Even though they were married only three months, he has intimate knowledge of the family that he can use to abduct Matt. Denny does not like animals—including the family pet, Pookie—and doesn’t care for children, which is clear to Bonnie, who remembers him and has always disliked him.

Denny has remarried and divorced twice since his relationship with Anita, has been convicted of assault and served six months in prison, and has been diagnosed with an antisocial personality. His behavior and lack of empathy for others shows that he does not “care who he hurts as long as he gets what he wants” (100). Denny is also a compulsive gambler with many dangerous debts and moves often to avoid paying. When Denny wins, he spends the money almost immediately because he is impulsive and lacks the ability to adequately plan his life. When he loses, his car gets repossessed and he often gets evicted from his homes if he doesn’t abandon them first. Despite his issues with gambling, anger, and a personality disorder, Denny believes that he doesn’t have any problems, blaming his issues on bad luck and “the jerks of the world, who seemed to be everywhere” (128). Despite hating the “feeling of impending disaster” and “being broke” (186), Denny never learns from his mistakes and continues taking gambling risks that end in disaster.

Denny intentionally uses Matt to obtain pity money from Winston and Celia to pay off his gambling debts and continue his compulsive gambling. His impulsiveness, anger issues, and lack of empathy for others make him highly dangerous and effectively increase the tension and suspense throughout the novel. His volatility and unpredictability heighten the stakes of the investigation. Denny is a static character who does not change throughout the novel. He’s already convinced himself that everyone else is to blame for his misfortune and refuses to see how much he needs help.