Ghost Story

Sears James, a 70-year-old confirmed bachelor, shares Ricky’s law practice. Sears comes from money and once desired to teach. Sears went to Harvard for his degree. Ricky says he has a magisterial appearance: He is tall and commanding in his presence. Sears has a no-nonsense manner and does not suffer fools. Sears holds nothing back when calling the sheriff out for drinking, and he protects his smaller friend from danger. There is speculation on Ricky’s part that Sears might be gay, but the two never speak of it.

Sears James comes from a wealthy family who has no need to work. He thinks, “it [is] immoral for a man not to have a profession” (47). Sears dedicates himself to working hard in the law practice with Ricky. Spears’s arc throughout the story is one of a stolid realist who is forced to face the supernatural. When he breaks down to tell the story of Fenny Bate, he comes to realize that something not quite natural is occurring, though he shakes his visions off as hallucinations. Sears sacrifices himself for Ricky, heading out to the farm in the blizzard to keep Ricky home with Stella.

Lewis Benedikt is the youngest of the group and one of the main protagonists. He resembles Cary Grant and has the available, and even unavailable, women of Milburn swoon over his appearance. He supposedly killed his wife in Spain, where he made money as a real estate investor before returning to Milburn. Lewis’s father was a pastor who admonished the monetary and excesses of modernity. Lewis embraces those things, buying a home described to be like a castle and sleeping with married women.

Lewis often defaults to a tone of indifference to mask his fear and shame. When asked about reaching out to Don, he says “‘I don’t care one way or the other [...] But I say don’t drag up the Eva Galli business” (54). Lewis’s cavalier attitude cracks when faced with the idea of confronting his shameful act or the possible lasting impact of it. He sleeps with his friend’s wife, but never confesses. He runs in the woods but falls into drinking when things go south. His complicated relationship with truth leads him to confront his shame in the woods.

Lewis spent most of his life hiding the truth of his wife’s death due to the shame and guilt he feels, though he did not kill her. He keeps parts of him closed off from everyone, even his close friends in the Chowder Society. He harbors a deep affection for Stella Hawthorne, though their affair ended long ago. Lewis prefers married women where the possibility of long-term attachment is limited. In the novel, he faces his own guilt and shame as he reckons with his past.

John Jaffrey is the fourth member of the Chowder Society and serves as another protagonist in the narrative. John is Milburn’s doctor and works to serve the town out of his home, with his offices on his first floor. He lives with his lover and housekeeper, Milly Sheehan. Though John is revered as the town’s doctor, he has not told anyone of his diagnosis of diabetes and his experience with substance abuse disorder. He injects himself with morphine when stressed. John’s party the year before was held in honor of the shapeshifter’s version of Ann-Veronica, and led to Edward Wanderley’s death, leaving the remaining members traumatized and grieving. John is viewed as the oldest Chowder Society member by the others, though he is the same age as the others. John’s appearance is described as grey and withering, representative of his perceived guilt over Edward’s death. He is the first of the Chowder Society to follow the shapeshifter’s voice to his death.

Don Wanderley is a novelist and nephew of Chowder Society member Edward Wanderley, whose sudden death initiates the action of the novel. Don is another protagonist of the story and secures the narrative’s resolution. He is a tall man in his thirties with thick blond hair and a square face. He cements his role as hero through confronting his past shame and secrets, and begins to unravel the mystery of the Manitou. Don’s fiancé, Alma Mobley, left him for his brother who killed himself under suspicious circumstances.

Don drives the plot by bringing the antagonists into focus in Milburn. Ricky thinks that Anna Mostyn would never have come if he had not, leaving the Chowder Society alone to face a nebulous enemy. Don dives into research about their enemy, using his uncle’s interview tapes to prove the shapeshifters’ strengths and limitations. Don saves Milburn and its residents by killing Anna.

Don remains steadfast in his conviction and sacrifices everything to save Milburn from his brother’s fate, including his livelihood when he burns his manuscript, his safety, and his pride.

The shapeshifter is the antagonist. It uses various disguises to confuse and disarm its prey. It appears first as Eva Galli, who the Chowder Society accidentally kills. Eva Galli then becomes the child, Alice Montgomery, who pushes Lewis’s wife out of the window. It tortures the painter Mobley as Amy Monkton, driving his son Shelby to suicide. The shapeshifter enters Don’s life as Alma Mobley, eventually causing his brother’s suicide. It returns to Milburn as Ann-Veronica Moore, killing Edward Wanderley. Ann-Veronica turns into Anna Mostyn, a woman who torments Milburn as revenge for her death as Eva Galli. When Anna dies, she reincarnates as Angie Maule, the child Don kidnaps and kills. It appears to Don as his fictional character, Dr. Rabbitfoot, throughout the novel.

The creature also appears in the animal forms of a lynx, a dog, a sparrow, and a wasp. It describes itself as immortal and superior to all humans. It treats its interactions with mortals as a diverting game, but the hunger underneath the malice betrays it. The shapeshifter needs the mortal’s imagination and blood to feed its power and provide it with illusions. Its origin is never made clear, but it is related to the mysterious Florence de Peyser.

Gregory and Fenny Bate, secondary antagonists, terrorize Milburn at the command of the shapeshifter. Gregory Bate begins by terrorizing his sister, Constance, and brother, Fenny. Sears tells the Chowder Society that Gregory physically and sexually abused them after their parents’ death. Fenny and his sister kill Gregory to escape his abuse. It does not end though. The shapeshifter takes Gregory and uses him to continue to harass his siblings and their teacher, Sears James.

Fenny starts as a survivor of his brother’s abuse but turns into an aggressor after he “crosses over.” The Bate brothers wreak havoc on Milburn. Gregory becomes the wolfman, showing his eyes only to those he plans to kill. He sucks the life out of people and farm animals. He acts at the behest of the shapeshifter, but he fully embraces the ability to cause pain and suffering in others. Fenny’s crossing over grants him strength and immunity to minor injuries. He walks barefoot through the snow, tapping on windows, whispering for entry. The two serve as agents of chaos. They sow the seeds of doubt and fear throughout the town.