Nothing More to Tell

Tripp Talbot (Noah Talbot III) is Brynn’s friend, classmate, and love interest, as well as the novel’s second narrator. Although they’ve been apart for four years, they used to be friends and now that Brynn moved back, they become friends again and eventually start a romantic relationship. Like Brynn, Tripp is also smart, driven, and ambitious, but for different reasons. Tripp sees his ambition and intelligence as a way out of his past, which he associates with this town. He thinks he needs to leave to be successful, and that his past of covering up his dad when he believed he murdered Mr. Larkin will ruin his life if he stays in the town. When Tripp finally learns his dad didn’t kill Mr. Larkin, he is still ambitious, but no longer feels a deep need to leave this town specifically.

Tripp’s character arc helps illustrate The Burden of Keeping Secrets as well as The Importance of Teamwork and Honesty. For Tripp, keeping secrets takes a tremendous toll on his mental health, causing him to isolate himself from everyone he cares about and attempt to process his massive emotions alone with alcohol as his only company. Tripp finally comes clean about his own truth, and in return, he receives answers he’s been needing since eighth grade to heal and to move forward appropriately in life. Making decisions based on disinformation does not lead to effective decisions, Tripp learns. It’s also not always best to be quiet, despite what his mother once told him.

Although Mr. Larkin/Billy Robbins is dead before the novel begins, the book’s plot revolves largely around present-day characters trying to solve his murder, so he serves an important role in the novel. His behavior and actions are also shown through flashbacks and exposition. Mr. Larkin was an English teacher at Saint Ambrose, where Brynn, Tripp, Shane, Charlotte, Mason, and others were his students. Brynn, Tripp, and most others viewed him as friendly, helpful, and a good teacher, but others such as Uncle Nick, Ms. Delgado, Tripp’s father, and Mr. Solomon all seem to have issues with him or think he could lose his temper. Throughout the story, the reader learns that Mr. Larkin started teaching at Saint Ambrose to be close to his brother, who the reader also learns is Mason.

At first, Brynn wants to obtain “justice” for Mr. Larkin by identifying his murderer. After more investigation, Brynn isn’t sure whether Mr. Larkin was such a great person or teacher after all. He was villainous in his own right, threatening to bring Dexter to Mason and Lila. However, Brynn still wants to solve Mr. Larkin’s murder, in case the murderer is still at large.

Ellie Gallagher is Brynn’s 14-year-old younger sister who is resourceful, helpful, queer, and wise beyond her years. Ellie is a supporting character who often offers advice, information, or other types of help to Brynn. In this way, she functions as a “donor” character—often giving the protagonist what she needs, whether it be an actual object or a piece of information, to proceed with her journey. For example, near the novel’s beginning, Ellie is the first one to gently warn Brynn that others might be upset if they find out she’s secretly investigating a murder from their community for a true-crime show. Later, Ellie helps Brynn find out who’s been vandalizing posters of Mr. Larkin.

Ellie’s role changes briefly near the end of the novel when Dexter kidnaps her. Because she closely resembles Brynn physically, Dexter finds Ellie at the winter dance and assumes that she is Brynn, promptly kidnapping her and trying to get answers about Billy/Mr. Larkin. Ellie becomes a victim whom Brynn, Tripp, and Uncle Nick need to rescue. However, even as a hostage, Ellie outsmarts her kidnapper by pretending she knows nothing.

Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher are Brynn and Ellie’s parents. Mr. Gallagher is also the brother of Uncle Nick. Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher are present throughout the novel and exercise influence over the plot, but they are not in nearly as many scenes as other supporting characters and have very few lines of dialogue. For the most part, they function as standard parental figures, making decisions about their children’s living situations and dictating rules and restrictions, while also providing guidance, love, and support. Additionally, the parents are the ones who move the family back to Massachusetts, catalyzing the novel’s sequence of events.

Uncle Nick is Brynn’s uncle, and a supporting character in the novel. Nick is Brynn’s father’s younger brother, and is currently in his mid-20s, pursuing a master’s degree in education while living in the house with Brynn and her immediate family. Nick also used to work as an assistant at Brynn’s school when she was in eighth grade, and he knew Mr. Larkin. Compared to Brynn’s father, Nick is under-accomplished, irresponsible, impractical, and childish. However, he is also fun, supportive, and kind to Brynn, so she enjoys his company and trusts him. Like other characters in the book, Nick warns Brynn repeatedly against the dangers of painful knowledge and against looking into Mr. Larkin’s murder. He also provides motivation for Brynn to keep pursuing the case and her career—she fears becoming like him, because in a family of very successful and impressive people, Nick is viewed as a failure. Nick is also a possible suspect of the murder and isn’t completely exonerated by the end.

Junior Talbot is Tripp’s father and one of the novel’s supporting characters, as well as a prime suspect for Mr. Larkin’s murder, of which he is eventually absolved. Even though Tripp spends most of the novel believing his father is a murderer, Junior is a hardworking, devoted, and loving father, but he’s also distant from his son for a few reasons. First, he works night shifts, and they have conflicting schedules, but he does this to provide financially for Tripp. Second, he doesn’t know what to do when Tripp pulls away from him, so he just lets it be.

Tripp’s father provides Tripp with a safe haven and meets all Tripp’s needs when his mother refuses to do so. However, ironically, Tripp views his father as unsafe (a murderer) and someone from whom he needs to run away by attending college somewhere else. Once he learns the truth, that his father didn’t steal the money or kill the teacher, Tripp reorganizes his priorities and recommits to his devotion to his father, who deserves it after all.

Shane Delgado is a supporting character who serves as a false antagonist throughout much of the novel. This is a common trope for mystery novels—the mystery is more compelling if there is more than one potential suspect, and if some characters seem suspicious despite not being the actual murderer. Although Shane seems like an uncomplicated, shallow, irresponsible, and naive person who could have easily been in the wrong place at the wrong time, Shane also seems like the prime suspect for most of the novel.

Shane comes from a wealthy family and is not used to his actions having repercussions. He naps frequently in class and does little work, yet is allowed to stay at the school because his parents pay tuition and donate money. They also donate to the police, making it seem like the police might be complicit in covering up Shane’s crime. Shane doesn’t always do the right thing but at the novel’s end, it seems like there’s hope that he will mature.

Charlotte Holbrook is a classmate of Brynn’s, and one of the three students who found Mr. Larkin’s body in the woods in eighth grade. Charlotte is also Shane’s girlfriend and Tripp’s friend. Charlotte is wealthy, popular, entitled, and seemingly only interested in shallow topics. However, she is also smart, manipulative, and capable of keeping secrets of her own. She is extremely attached to Shane likely because he’s easy to control and manipulate, and he’s not smart enough to try and control or manipulate her in retaliation.

Charlotte’s bizarre devotion to Shane is important because it provides a motive for her as a murder suspect in Mr. Larkin’s case. Although nobody suspects her throughout most of the novel, she’s Brynn’s prime suspect by the end. Charlotte overheard Mr. Larkin confessing to be someone’s brother, but she never saw Mason walk out of the classroom, only Shane. She then had motive to kill Mr. Larkin to protect Shane.

Carly Diaz is the head of the true-crime television series Motive and Brynn’s boss at her internship. Carly is ambitious, driven, and smart like Brynn, but she’s also fast-paced, quirky, and controlling. Carly takes pleasure in telling other people what to do and in making her own rules. She has no patience for others who try to overrule her power. She hires Brynn just because it amuses her that she’s allowed to do such a ridiculous thing. She is not exactly a model human being or a great business owner, but she provides an outlet for Brynn to start investigating a crime that was completely neglected.

Gunnar Fox is the dishonest, skeevy, money-hungry host of the hokey “true-crime” show Don’t Do the Crime. His character illustrates how easily the true-crime genre can seep into unethical territory, and his character also moves the plot forward. He acts as a counterpart to both Brynn and Carly, showing the dangers of true crime at its worst. Gunnar does not care about learning the truth, nor does he care who he must exploit, hurt, or lie about in order to make a compelling, if false, episode of television.

Carly’s true-crime show provides a contrast to Gunnar’s show, and her character arc explores the ethics of the true-crime genre. Clearly with Gunnar, the dangers of true-crime are shown, while Carly illustrates the potential for true-crime writers to do good, even as she also shows their potential to make mistakes. What Gunnar does is unquestionably wrong, but what Carly does is not always unquestionably right. This is why she sometimes must “kill” cases, as she temporarily orders Brynn to do with Mr. Larkin, after it causes trouble. Carly, like Gunnar, is motivated by glamor, so she must check herself sometimes to make sure she’s not getting into territory that’s too morally gray.

Regina Young is Tripp’s boss and the owner of Brightside Bakery. She is also a “surrogate” mother or parental figure to Tripp. She keeps him on track with his goals and responsibilities, making sure he fills out scholarship applications and participates in extracurricular activities that would look impressive on a college application. She lectures Tripp when he drinks too much and neglects his responsibilities, demanding he sober up and return to school and work. She even offers him her extra bedroom if he wants to move out of his father’s house after high school. Regina is kind, supportive, and assertive—she loves Tripp but won’t let him get away with things she wouldn’t let her own kids get away with.

Lisa Marie Talbot is Tripp’s biological mother, and Tripp calls her Lisa Marie instead of Mom because she said years ago that she was “done” being his mom. She doesn’t live with Tripp, but thousands of miles away, and when she comes to visit town, she doesn’t always tell Tripp she’s there. She rarely contacts him, and when she does, it’s usually because she wants him to do something for her.

When Tripp follows Regina’s well-meaning advice and meets up with Lisa Marie, she tries to get him to guest star on Gunnar’s fake crime show, which would require lying and saying that his friend Shane is a murderer, and when Tripp refuses this “opportunity,” she continues working with Gunnar behind his back, trying to frame Tripp, instead of Shane, for the murder. Beyond being an unsuitable mother to Tripp, Lisa is an immoral person in general—she steals from Mr. Solomon as well as from a school and lies constantly. In this sense, she is one of the novel’s antagonists. Lisa Marie is also a suspect of the murder who is not completely absolved by the end.

Mason Rafferty is one of Brynn’s friends from eighth grade, with whom she reunites when she moves back to Massachusetts for her senior year. Mason is loyal, kind, and supportive—generally a good friend to Brynn as well as Ellie, who is queer like him. Mason is not wealthy and is on scholarship, like Brynn and Tripp, meaning he is, out of necessity, more responsible and studious than many of his peers. However, Mason is also playful and drinks a lot.

Secretly, Mason is Mikey Robbins, the son of Lila and Dexter Robbins and the brother of Mr. Larkin/Billy. Lila and Mikey ran away from Dexter and changed their names because he was abusive. However, besides this, Mason is essentially who he says he is. He didn’t tell people about his former name out of necessity, but his personality is genuine. Although he does vandalize the posters of Mr. Larkin, his brother, he is not guilty of his murder. Once Dexter is killed, Mason becomes free to be honest about his former identity and what happened with Dexter and Mr. Larkin. This is healing for him and helps illustrate the burden of keeping secrets, as well as the rejuvenating power of honesty.