As Good As Dead

Ravi is Pip’s gentle, loyal boyfriend. They met when she was investigating the supposed suicide of his brother Sal. After Pip proves that Sal never killed Andie Bell or himself, Ravi and Pip begin dating and eventually fall in love. Ravi is Watson to Pip’s Holmes. He frequently calls her “Sarge” because of her take-charge personality.

Ravi tempers Pip’s impetuous streak and is a calming influence on her. He assists with her investigations and even helps her stage a crime scene in book three. Unwilling to let her confess to murder, he lies to Hawkins to save Pip. Ravi is as devoted to Pip as she is to him. At the novel's end, he is rewarded for his patience when Max’s conviction makes it possible for the two young lovers to be reunited.

Hawkins is a tired, middle-aged man frequently annoyed by Pip’s involvement in his cases. He generally dismisses the facts she presents to him. As a result, Pip solves cases that Hawkins has been unable to crack through conventional means. Because he operates by the book, Hawkins frequently misses evidence that Pip sees. By the end of the third novel, he seems to develop some respect for Pip’s abilities. He may even suspect her of staging Jason Bell’s murder scene but can’t prove anything. In the end, he is forced to follow the trail of evidence that Pip has created to lead the police straight to Max.

Max Hastings is the golden boy of the community. He is rich and handsome but also likes to drug girls and rape them. In the first book in the series, he often purchases Rohypnol from Andie Bell to be used in his date-rape crimes. Two of his previous victims include Andie’s younger sister, Becca, and Pip’s friend, Nat da Silva. Max is eventually forced to stand trial, but his family’s money and influence help to get him acquitted.

Pip is enraged at this miscarriage of justice and publishes Max’s recorded confession on her podcast. This results in Max suing her for libel. Since Pip knows Max will never face any consequences for his crimes and will continue to rape women, she pins Jason Bell’s murder on him. At the end of the third book, Max is found guilty and sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Jason is the father of Andie and Becca. He appears to be an upstanding local businessman but is really the Duct Tape Killer. Before committing murder, he was a serial rapist known as the South Shore Stalker. Jason is obsessed with making women listen to him and follow orders, which is why he wraps their heads in duct tape to keep them from talking. Before her death, Andie senses that something is wrong with her father and wants to get her sister away from him.

When Jason tries to make Pip his sixth victim, she crushes his skull with a hammer. Afterward, Pip stages the crime scene so all the evidence points to Max. Unlike the culprits in previous books in the series, Jason is not a morally ambivalent character. Pip describes him as pure evil, so his murder seems justifiable.

Cara and Naomi are childhood friends of Pip’s. They are also the daughters of murderer Elliot Ward. Even though Pip is responsible for sending their father to prison, the girls remain loyal to Pip. The sisters help establish Pip’s alibi on the night Jason Bell dies, no questions asked.

Conner is a classmate of Pip’s. In book two, he enlists her help to find his missing older brother, Jamie. Pip’s second-season podcast covers this investigation. Jamie is eventually found alive, and both Reynolds brothers are grateful to Pip for reuniting their family. In book three, they help her plant Max’s phone at the crime scene so that he will be implicated in Jason Bell’s murder.

Nat is a former schoolmate of Pip’s. In book two, she is hostile to Pip and is dating drug dealer Luke Eaton. Nat’s attitude toward Pip changes when she realizes Pip is seeking justice for Max’s date-rape victims. Nat testifies at his trial as one of his former victims and is devastated when the jury exonerates him. In book three, she is dating Jamie Reynolds and is eager to help Pip implicate Max in Jason’s murder. She provides a distraction by engaging Max in an argument while Pip slips into his house to drug him. Even after Nat realizes that Pip probably murdered Jason herself, she remains a loyal friend.

Luke is a rough character and a local drug dealer. In book two, Pip briefly suspects he might be Child Brunswick, but he is only a victim of the catfishing scheme intended to flush the serial killer’s anonymous son out of hiding. Luke dates Nat until she later becomes involved with Jamie. In book three, Luke primarily functions as Pip’s Xanax supplier after her doctor won’t prescribe any more of the medication for her. He also unknowingly sells her the Rohypnol she uses to drug Max.

NOTE: The following characters are either the perpetrators or victims of crimes. They are all dead or jailed by book three in the series. However, all three seasons of the podcast crimes are so closely intertwined that knowing the backstories of these individuals helps the reader understand how they have influenced Pip’s behavior in the final novel.

Andie is Jason’s elder daughter. When she disappeared over five years earlier, she became the subject of Pip’s first podcast season. Everyone assumed that boyfriend Sal Singh killed Andie and then killed himself. In reality, Andie was having an affair with her teacher, Elliot Ward. After a quarrel, she bumped her head on his office desk and left with a concussion.

Hours later, she returns home to discover that sister Becca has been date-raped by Max using drugs that Andie sold him. Becca is so angry she fails to register Andie’s serious brain injury, which ends up killing her. Becca hides Andie’s body by dumping it into a septic tank on an abandoned farm property. It won’t be found until more than five years later when Pip’s podcast reveals the true facts of the case.

Becca is Andie’s younger sister. Although Andie is protective, Becca is resentful and starts attending high school house parties. At one of these events, Max slips Rohypnol into her drink and later rapes her. At home, Becca angrily confronts Andie about the drugs the latter sold Max. Becca is unaware that the swelling in her sister’s brain is killing her until it’s too late. Panic stricken, Becca hides Andie’s body in a septic tank on an abandoned farm property. After Pip exposes Becca’s crime, she pleads guilty. Because she was a minor at the time of Andie’s death, the court only sentenced her to 18 months in jail. Becca remains in contact with Pip and considers the podcaster a friend.

Sal is Ravi’s older brother. He attended high school with Andie Bell, and the two were dating at the time of her death. Elliot Ward kills Sal, but the death is made to look like a suicide because Ward plants a false confession in which Sal claims responsibility for Andie’s murder. The entire town turns against the Singh family until Pip’s podcast sets the record straight. Ravi and Pip first meet when she starts her investigation by asking Ravi questions about his brother.

Elliot Ward is a respected high school teacher to Pip and her classmates. Years earlier, he was having an affair with his student Andie. After a quarrel, Elliot shoves Andie so that she falls and bumps her head. Staggering out of his office, she then disappears completely. Elliot is unaware that Andie is dead but fears that he may have accidentally killed her. Desperate to cover up his crime, he kills Andie’s boyfriend, Sal, and leaves a false suicide note so that everyone will think Sal is guilty of Andie’s murder. Pip’s first podcast season exposes Elliot’s guilt, and he goes to jail. Pip herself is ambivalent about Elliot because he is not a career criminal. He acted out of desperate necessity, which puts him in a morally gray category.

Stanley Forbes is a Fairview resident who volunteers his time at the local newspaper and participates in many charitable activities for the community. He is a friend of Pip’s but harbors a dark secret. Stanley’s father was a serial killer who forced his son to lure potential victims to him. After his father was captured and jailed, Stanley served time in juvenile detention but was freed as an adult. His records were sealed, so nobody is aware of his childhood identity. Since his release, he has spent his life trying to escape his unfortunate past until the brother of his father’s last victim comes hunting for him. Stanley is killed at the end of the second book in the series, and he tells Pip before he dies that he’s glad because he is tired of running. Pip feels great sympathy for Stanley and sees him as a victim of his serial killer father despite his assistance in these crimes.