Cal Hooper is a 48-year-old former cop who is seeking out early retirement in the West of Ireland. Six-foot-four, solidly built Cal is conscious that his size makes him conspicuous and may be intimidating, especially to women, so he portrays a charming, self-depreciating persona. He also maintains the “thick backwoods drawl” of his North Carolina grandfather’s friends to seem approachable and gain people’s trust (143). Nevertheless, he is genuinely compassionate and willing to look beyond the local rumor mill in assessing people’s character for himself.

Recently divorced and disillusioned with his former employment, following an incident that almost led to him and his partner shooting a Black teenager, Cal begins the novel with the intention to keep to himself and enjoy countryside pursuits such as rabbit hunting, fishing, and refurbishing his home. He thus harks back to the simpler time when he was growing up in North Carolina and his grandfather was teaching him to hunt and fish. This is symbolic of him wishing to throw off the adult experience that he feels has corrupted him and to enter a childlike state in a land far from home, where no-one knows him.

Cal’s initial wish to deny that Trey is watching him, aligns with his general state of denial at the beginning of the novel.