Hidden Bodies

Amy is Joe’s rebound relationship after Beck. Originally, Joe defines her as the “anti-Beck” (8) because she is “taking all of it away, my healer, my Bactine beauty” (8). Of course, the reader only has Joe’s perspective on Amy, and his perspective is only loving as long as she indulges his desires, his need for flattery, and remains agreeable. When she runs afoul of Joe, he switches gears instantly: “She is evil. She is dangerous. She is incapable of love. She is a sociopath. Worse than a borderline” (34). Here again Joe shows he is incapable of living in any shade of gray. He cannot tolerate hashtag or borderline personalities; one either is or is not good.

Unfortunately for Joe, Amy proves to be a thief and a con artist who steals from him. Amy is an astute judge of character, particularly when it comes to sensing Joe’s insecurities and vulnerabilities. For instance, she bonds with him over the Philip Roth novel Portnoy’s Complaint, knowing Joe’s genuine passion for books. Amy is a different sort of chameleon than Joe: she knows how to ingratiate herself to him to the point where she can steal from him, but she is not violent or hateful. She is, rather, an opportunist who is willing to be whatever she needs to be as long as it benefits her. She has no problem skipping out on the check, role playing, or giving herself to Joe sexually if it will get him to lower his guard.

Amy’s perspective on Charlotte & Charles provides some insight into her character. Its dark message of humanity’s unwillingness to learn from its mistakes makes it one of Amy’s favorite books, and she has had her “whole life to think about it” (23). Joe spares Amy at the end of the novel. She helps him experience an epiphany about himself, even if he is drawing the wrong conclusion from her words. She says he is “so obviously desperate for someone to come in and change [his] life” (418) that it annoys her and everyone else. Joe pities Amy as “a sad, lonely girl. She carried a book around that she didn’t even understand, and she wants the world to be like a Richard Yates book, with sad endings” (419). Amy functions as a plot device that allows Joe to spare her, which tricks him into thinking that he has grown emotionally.

Love Quinn is Joe’s love interest. When he meets her, she is 35, a movie producer, and the de facto caretaker of her brother, Forty. During their initial meeting, Joe thinks, “She’s a pervert too” (114). They sense a kinship. Slowly, Love helps Joe start to let go of his mania to find Amy. Love is a gateway to better things. He describes her as “a passport” (117) that leads only to better places. Love is compassionate and empathetic. Despite Forty’s many irritating and infuriating habits, she tries to understand what it must have been like to be the twin who was loved less, even by their dog.

Joe is initially drawn to her physical beauty, but the reality exceeds his expectations, with the exception that she does not engage in oral sex. Forty tells Joe that she is “incapable of being single” (193). He also says she is, “deeply, profoundly, erotically, supremely, wholly sexual” (194). Love has been married twice, and each of the marriages ended badly, which makes her susceptible to rare bouts of melancholy. Throughout the story, Joe is looking for acceptance. However, his ideas about acceptance are skewed because he has to hide so much of his past from any potential partners.

Love is the one who hears Joe’s darkest secrets and still accepts him. She is the only person—outside of his victims—who knows the truth about him. Love has a dark side that rivals Joe’s, minus the apparent capacity for killing. Regardless, she is willing to keep his secret, love Joe, and even retrieves the mug that could indict him. Earlier, Joe thinks that Love must be “the least judgmental woman alive” (176). After she stays with him, post-confession, it appears that his observation might actually be true. At the novel’s conclusion, Love’s inability to hate anyone is what saves Joe when the detective tries to find details that will make them contradict each other’s stories.