The Court Reporter
The court reporter is singled out by the narrator as being the only court official involved in the trial who never refers to the killer by his name. Rather, her courtroom transcripts attribute only the term “the Defendant” as an identification. The primary narrator comes to symbolize the concept of a fair society in which a serial killer does not attain fame by everyone recognizing his name.
The Narrators
The book features two narrators. One was a victim/witness of a murderous rampage and the other was the best friend of a woman who went missing and is presumed to have been murdered. The entire point of the novel is to reverse history so that the serial killer becomes anonymous and forgotten. In this way, the story becomes about the women the killer victimized. Both the narrators are symbols of that alternative history which reverses the narrative.
The Defendant
The killer referred to only as “the Defendant” by the narrator is actually Ted Bundy. The story primarily focuses on his arrest and subsequent trial which was the first to be televised in Florida. Both the legal process and the media coverage come under harsh scrutiny by the primary narrator who views it largely through a feminist perspective. Over the course of the story, the Defendant—Bundy—becomes a symbol of male privilege. The myth of Bundy as a criminal genius is attributed not to factual evidence, but the benefits of patriarchal prejudice.
Judge Lambert
Judge Lambert is a very thinly-veiled fictionalized version of Judge Cowart, the man who presided over Bundy’s trial. Cowart’s actual words are spoken by his fictional counterpart and those words are subject to a blistering critique by the narrator. Judge Lambert is characterized as being overly deferential to the defendant while not being as respectful as the victims. He thus becomes a symbol of systemic male in the service of protecting the patriarchy.
Capitol Building
Most capitol buildings in the U.S. are defined by the familiar round dome sitting atop the structure. The Florida state capitol in Tallahassee is defined by an absurdly high tower rising between the two bodies of the legislature which are, in turn, each topped by very small saucer-shaped roofs. The result is undeniably phallic. The narrator recalls that one of her friends who was killed by the defendant described it as a “brutalist scourge.” The building becomes an oft-referenced symbol of patriarchal dominance of law and political power in Tallahassee.
