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64 pages 2 hours read

Lisa Scottoline

What Happened to the Bennetts

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Character Analysis

Jason Bennett

Jason is the protagonist and narrator of What Happened to the Bennetts. He grew up on a dairy farm in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He was an altar boy, and he was raised to be good, honest, and risk-averse by his widower father. He was a linebacker in high school, majored in political science at Bucknell University, and went to one year of law school before dropping out. He prides himself on being self-reliant and earning everything he’s accomplished. He worked on a farm growing up and worked construction during the summers between college semesters. He built his court reporting business from scratch, and he’s proud of being one of only 13 court reporters in the country chosen to go to Guantanamo Bay.

Now Jason is 47 years old. He is good looking. He gets up early and does the morning chores. He is a good father: an “involved father” who is “present” in his children’s lives (14). He is a good boss and loves his employees. He even attends his children’s birthdays and graduations. But he is also easygoing to a fault. Lucinda accuses him of being conflict-avoidant and of dropping out of law school because going into debt was too much risk for him. In the first half of What Happened to the Bennetts, Jason is so used to sticking to what is safe and familiar that he loses all sense of himself when he leaves the terra firma of Pennsylvania for the marshes of Delaware.

Jason is a heroic protagonist throughout the novel. In the first half, he is heroic for acting mostly rationally while his world falls apart. His tragic flaw, of playing his life too safe, is not enough to cause the Bennetts’ problems. But Jason recognizes that it might have damaged the foundation of his marriage enough that Allison’s death and their subsequent relocation might destroy their relationship completely. More importantly, Jason decides that playing it safe is not enough to ensure the safety of his family. The second half of the novel sees Jason reinventing himself into someone who identifies what he wants and takes the necessary actions to get it.

Lucinda Bennett

Lucinda is Jason’s wife. Her mother was the CEO of an insurance company. She was an art major in college and now owns her own photography business. She is beautiful with a heart-shaped face, gray-blue eyes, a small nose, and dark blond hair. She is the kind of person who never complained, did all the homework, and got things done. She was also the kind of person who sacrificed herself because of her sense of family obligation. She took care of her dying sister, and she continues to make sacrifices to take care of her mother. She lives her life—and even her time on Facebook—for her kids rather than herself.

Because Lucinda gives so much of her life to her family, she was open to an affair with Hart. And for the same reason, when Lucinda loses Allison and is forcibly taken away from her mother, she feels like her entire world is taken from her. She feels like her arms have been torn from her body and slowly loses the will to fight back depression. The reader does not have access to Lucinda for a couple of days while the narrative follows Jason, and when he reunites with her, she had been doing a lot of reflection. Jason sees her as someone he needs to forgive, but Lucinda realizes that she needs to make her own decision. She needs to decide what she wants for herself so that she doesn’t find herself living only a series of family obligations again.

Ethan Bennett

Ethan is Jason and Lucinda’s 13-year-old son. He is skinny with a round face and narrow-set eyes. He has a sprinkling of freckles on his nose, having inherited Jason’s Irish skin. Compared to Allison, Ethan is an indoors person. He likes playing video games like Call of Duty. Jason describes him as “the kind of kid who needed a push to fly” (173). He is also anxious and needs things explained to him. Ethan is introverted and needs time to himself. He has a close group of friends but is not good about making new friends, which is one reason why is afraid of starting over in the witness protection program.

Ethan has a hard time with Allison’s death. He stops eating and never wants to leave his bed. The family dog Moonie functions as Ethan’s avatar. When Ethan explains that Moonie doesn’t like it in Delaware, he is talking about himself. When Ethan is worried that Jason will blame Moonie for Allison’s death, Ethan is blaming himself. When they return to Delaware to find Moonie, it feels like Ethan’s well-being depends on finding him. In the end, Ethan is saved because they do find Moonie and the family enters therapy.

Special Agent Dom Kingston

Dom grew up in West Philadelphia working at his Uncle Tig’s check-cashing agency. It was a dangerous place to work, and the experience led Dom to pursue a career in law enforcement. He completed the criminal justice program at Temple University and then trained at Quantico, becoming an FBI undercover agent for 12 years. When his partner was killed on the job, Dom lost his confidence, and it threw his personal life into turmoil. Eventually, he went to therapy, and the FBI reassigned him to a job with less action, looking after witnesses in the witness protection program.

Despite his past, Dom is a confident and authoritative figure. He is a family man, and everyone tends to like him. He is a Black man with a rectangular face, strong jaw, and receding hairline. He very quickly forms a friendship with Jason in Delaware. They run together, and Dom cares for the Bennetts more than he cares for most witnesses under his protection. More than once, Dom gives Jason important advice for keeping a family together. He acts as Jason’s mentor. When Jason reunites with him and his family in West Philadelphia, Dom takes over. Afterward, Dom credits Jason with snapping him out of his funk. He had been playing it safe in the witness protection program and plans to return to the field.

John Milo

Milo was rescued from the streets by Big George. When Big George learned he had cancer, he told Milo before his son, and he handed over the reins of the organization to both Milo and Junior. Milo was like a son to Big George and a brother to Junior. But he turns on both for personal gain. He double-crosses everyone he partners with, including Hart and the FBI. He is a loose cannon who seems to act based on whim. 

Milo is the novel’s clearest antagonist. He is big and strong with tattooed arms, small eyes, high cheekbones, and long, dark hair (78). Whenever Jason encounters Milo, no dialogue takes place between them. Milo is depicted as pure violence. Despite having ex-CIA agents in his posse, it is unclear whether Milo is working to assist Senator Ricks. Because Milo never really talks in the novel, his goals are undefined. From the Bennetts’ perspective, he only cares about one thing: killing them because they can help send him to jail.

Allison Bennett

Allison is Jason and Lucinda’s teenage daughter. She loves ice cream, is popular at school, and is very close with her mother. She is athletic and highly competitive, and the novel starts after one of the field hockey games. Many of Jason’s memories involve driving Allison to sports matches. She struggles with self-esteem, but Jason believes that she is beautiful and can do anything she sets her mind to. Allison’s death nearly destroys the Bennetts, and her presence throughout the novel is limited to memories, Ethan’s belief in ghosts, and the Great Blue Heron that Jason associates with her spirit.

Special Agent “Wiki” Hallman

Wiki is Dom’s FBI partner. He is from Delaware and attended the University of Delaware. He is 35 years old and divorced, but he seems younger. He has dimpled cheeks and is goofy like a teenager. Jason and Lucinda think of him as a giant kid, and Dom calls him “a puppy with a waist holder” (185). He was nicknamed Wikipedia Brown (after Encyclopedia Brown) because he has a lot of facts memorized. Unlike Dom, Wiki is a loner. He likes video games and hopes the connect with Ethan through Call of Duty. His concern for Ethan seems sincere, but Wiki ends up turning on Dom and the Bennetts.

Paul Hart

Hart is a high-powered lawyer with Lattimore & Finch, one of the most prestigious firms in Philadelphia. He attended Princeton and Harvard and looks preppy; he wears tailored suits and horn-rimmed glasses, and he drives a Mercedes. Hart connects many of the characters in the novel to each other. Hart works for Senator Ricks. He is also a lawyer for the GVO. Milo does a lot of his dirty work. And Hart had an affair with Lucinda. He is the kind of lawyer, Jason thinks, who weaponizes the law against justice. And according to Big George, he cares only about money and power. He sleeps with women who can help him get more. Hart seems like he might be the main antagonist of the novel, but he doesn’t live long enough.

Big George Veria

Big George is the head of the George Veria Organization. He is a stocky but powerful man in his sixties, and he is still powerful despite having only months to live. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. By the time the novel begins, Big George already handed over the GVO to his son Junior and Milo. Junior’s death forces him back into action to get revenge, and Milo’s betrayal leaves him with no family left. Despite being responsible for a large drug trafficking ring, Jason sees Big George as a man of his word who cares for his family. In a twisted way—since he also threatens Jason’s life—Big George also serves as a mentor figure, and Jason treats him as such by the end.

Bryan Krieger

Krieger is an amateur true crime enthusiast who hosts a popular blog and podcast. He calls himself “America’s Premiere Citizen Detective” and investigates mysteries across the country. He decides to investigate the case of the missing Bennett family. The reader never meets Krieger directly. His character serves to deliver information between other characters, and that information proves necessary for Jason to uncover the truth. Through Krieger’s interview with Lucinda’s friend Melissa, Jason learns about Lucinda’s affair with Hart. Krieger also illuminates the changing media role in law enforcement. Krieger is one example of amateur detectives online, and the FBI does not understand the trend’s implications.

Collins Consolidated

The largest trucking company in the area is called Collins Consolidated. Jason first runs across the company while fleeing Milo at the composting plant when Milo crashes into a minivan. At the scene, a truck driver named Jaybird exchanges gunfire with Milo and helps save the passengers of the minivan. Jason later meets more Collins Consolidated drivers at a diner. He uses this experience to ingratiate himself with Flossie, a Collins Consolidated driver, who helps him slip through a police checkpoint and later finds his missing dog, Moonie. Because the Collins Consolidated drivers have a unique loyalty to each other, they use their network to search for Milo and Moonie.

Three Musketeers

Skeet, Richardson, and Dom’s Uncle Tig refer to themselves as the “Three Musketeers.” They are older Black men who spent time in Vietnam together and are now poker buddies. Dom mentions his Uncle Tig early on; Tig ran a check-cashing agency in West Philadelphia where Dom worked growing up. But the reader doesn’t meet Skeet and Richardson until the last section of the novel. The three friends are so close that they seem like family and, because of their experience in Vietnam, they are a convenient posse when Jason needs one. They are extremely calm under pressure.

Senator Mike Ricks

Michael Ricks is the son of a senator and was a military interrogator at Guantanamo Bay. While at Gitmo, he was involved in the torture and murder of detainees but managed to clear his name due to his connections. At the start of the novel, Ricks is looking to run for president. Because he knows a presidential run might dig up his past, Ricks has his close friend Hart investigate whether Jason remembers him being in Guantanamo Bay, which kicks off the events of the novel. Ricks is the primary antagonist of the novel, but his only interaction with Jason is across the senate floor at the end when Jason gets his revenge.

Melissa Deluca

Melissa is Lucinda’s best friend. When the Bennetts disappear, Melissa tries to find out what happened to them. She rallies her social media network, investigates scenes on her own, and eventually does an interview with Krieger to put pressure on the police. Doing so, Melissa unwittingly reveals Lucinda’s affair, which leads to Jason eventually discovering the truth. Melissa demonstrates the connection between Social Media and Law Enforcement, particularly the way social media complicates law enforcement and witness protection.

George Veria Jr.

Big George’s son Junior has recently taken over the GVO with Milo. He is unaware that Milo has designs on taking over alone. While Jason sympathizes with the father for having lost a child, there is no reason to sympathize with Junior. During the carjacking, Junior’s threatening and possibly sexual behavior toward Allison raises the tension and eventually leads to her death.

Phil Nerone

Nerone is a “retail level” drug trafficker in the GVO. He looks unremarkable outside of a thin goatee and stands in as a representative GVO minion: the archetypical underling in a criminal organization. He drives the dark BMW that is first spotted at the Bennetts’ house, and he is responsible for burning down the house, killing Hart, and likely much more. He continues taking orders from Milo not knowing that Milo is double-crossing Big George or acting as an FBI informant. Milo kills him after Jason reveals the latter.

Special Agent Reilly

Special Agent Reilly is the agent in charge of the FBI investigation into the Bennett case. He was the agent who assigned Wiki to the Bennetts and turns out to be working with Milo. He does not appear much as a character in the novel and stands in for corruption in the FBI more generally.

Claire Romarin

Claire is Lucinda’s mother. She used to be the CEO of an insurance company but, after Lucinda’s sister Caitlin died of breast cancer, developed Alzheimer’s disease. Now she lives at Bay Horse assisted living.

Mr. Thatcher

Mr. Thatcher spends his time on the porch down the street from the Delaware safehouse in one of the few houses in the neighborhood that isn’t empty. The lawn is covered in junk and old cars, and. He is an old man who sells Jason a car (and his silence) for cash.

Contessa Burroughs

Contessa is a paralegal for the white-collar litigation team at Lattimore & Finch, working for Hart. She is also Hart’s girlfriend, presumably because her parents are one of his biggest clients. Contessa is collateral damage when Milo decides to tie up loose ends.

Rohan Doha

Doha was an innocent goatherd who was sold to the US government for a bounty after 9/11. Detained at Guantanamo Bay, Doha was subjected to repeated strikes to his knees, sleep deprivation, and other forms of torture. He died due to the negligence and cruelty of his interrogators, including Ricks.

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