Kiss the Girls

Kate is Cross’s sidekick and romantic partner. She’s a central character, giving Cross important insight into Casanova and his underground space. Kate carries the theme of The Resilience of Women. She’s mentally and physically tough, and her tenacity spurs her first escape. Like Cross, she’s also stubborn. Though her home reminds her of a frightening Hitchcock film, she stays in it, which leads to her second near-death experience. Kate wants to find the killers, so in addition to her sidekick and romantic partner, she’s Cross’s unofficial police partner. She travels with him to Los Angeles to surveil William Rudolph. In North Carolina, she helps Cross follow Sachs. Though she’s a victim, Kate isn’t a helpless or flat character. As her multiple roles indicate, she has a layered personality.

Another role for Kate is heroine. She’s an empowered female character who transcends traditionally confining beauty norms. Casanova notices, “She seldom wore makeup. She seemed very natural, and there was nothing phony or stuck-up about her” (93). Kate doesn’t dwell on her looks, and as she’s almost 31, she expands the definition of “young woman.” In his notes about Casanova, Cross writes that Casanova “takes beautiful young women of all types” (412). Kate’s character indicates that young includes women in their thirties. Conversely, she shows that “young women” don’t have a monopoly on beauty, and that a woman at any age can qualify as attractive.

Casanova is one of the two killers and rapists. He and Rudolph “twin,” forming a bond through their sexual brutality. They are the villains and antagonists, and their horrific crimes give Cross another grisly case to solve. Cross recognizes that Casanova is the more powerful twin, so he’s the more important antagonist. While Rudolph dies in Part 4, Casanova lives until the penultimate chapter, giving his character a greater mystery. Rudolph admits that Casanova is superior to him, telling Cross, “You’ll never find him. You’re not good enough, Cross. You’re not even close. He’s the best ever” (714). Casanova claims his crimes are motivated by his determination to act “on his natural impulses,” believing “men are hunters by nature” (85-86). He thinks of himself as a contemporary Casanova—an unrepressed pleasure-seeker. At the same time, Cross motivates Casanova, with Casanova deriving satisfaction from outsmarting the detective. Casanova believes he’s “better at this game” (162).

Casanova is handsome, strong, and he has long hair. When Cross meets Ruskin, he notices Ruskin’s “longish brown hair” and “bigger than life” frame (99), providing an early clue that Ruskin is Casanova. Unlike Rudolph, Casanova wears masks. Kate and Cross speculate that he wears the masks because his face is “disfigured.” The masks also serve a practical way to conceal his identity. More so, the masks represent his desire to transcend his human form. Kate says the masked Casanova looks like “some kind of dark god,” and she wonders, “Was that his fantasy image of himself?” (188). Obsessed with control and knowing everything he can about his victims, Casanova wants the power of an omniscient god. At the same time, he admits he has human feelings, and his infatuation with Kate leads to his downfall. The reason why Cross kills him is because he can’t move on from Kate.

The Gentleman Caller is Casanova’s “twin” and as the less powerful killer, he’s the sidekick. As with Casanova, the Gentleman Caller is handsome and motivated by violent power and deception. The narrator writes, “The Gentleman was in control of an entire city” while the LAPD remain “stumped and baffled by him” (383). The Gentleman Caller also gets motivation by outwitting law enforcement. Unlike Casanova, the Gentleman Caller seeks publicity. He sends diary entries to the Los Angeles Times, which eventually exposes his identity. Like Casanova, the Gentleman Caller has human traits. His primary trait is insecurity. Referring to the diary entries, the narrator says, “He reveled in the secure feeling it gave him, the reassuring front-page news stories that told him he truly existed, that he wasn’t a twisted figment of his own imagination” (385). The Gentleman Caller lacks Casanova’s confidence. As with a fair amount of other humans, he needs external validation.

The Gentleman Caller is William Rudolph, and Rudolph is a plastic surgeon. The story connects Rudolph’s job to his crimes, suggesting that plastic surgery has an inherently dehumanizing quality. Unlike Casanova, the story details Rudolph’s backstory. His father was abusive, and he moved around a lot because his father was in the army. The personal history indicates that Rudolph is practicing the abuse that he suffered, and he’s compensating for his lonely childhood by twinning with Casanova.

John Sampson is a Washington, DC, police detective, so he’s Cross’s sidekick, serving as his professional partner and best friend. Cross and Sampson have a deep history, and they grew up together in Washington, DC. Demonstrating their closeness, Sampson often comes over to Cross’s house, where they chat about work and Cross’s personal life.

Sampson functions as Cross’s foil, demonstrating traits that are absent in Cross. While Cross is mostly straightforward and earnest, Sampson has a sardonic sense of humor. While walking through the woods, Sampson quips, “Reminds me of Hansel and Gretel. Melodramatic bullshit, man. Hated that story when I was a little kid” (661). He also uses humor to counter the intense interaction with the racist police in Chapter 87. Through Sampson’s humorous character, the reader receives breaks from the story’s intense drama.

Wick Sachs teaches at Duke University, and he’s a problematic character. He has an extensive collection of pornographic literature, and Casanova uses his reputation as Doctor Dirt to frame him for the murders and kidnappings. Thus, Sachs is a red herring. While he has inappropriate relationships with students—and he has an affair with an English professor—he’s not a brutal criminal.

The story takes place in the 1990s, but if it occurred today, Sachs would likely face serious consequences for his relationships, and people would attach him to labels like “grooming.” His behavior makes it difficult to feel sorry for him. Nevertheless, Cross creates a pitiful image of Sachs when the police wrongly arrest him, and he perspires under interrogation, ruining his expensive clothes. The portrait highlights Sachs’s human frailty. Whatever he is, he’s not an emblem of indomitable evil.

Naomi is Cross’s niece, but she functions as a daughter since Cross helped raise her after her father (Cross’s brother) died due to substance and alcohol addiction. Naomi is a rather flat character, yet she provides the main reason for Cross to travel to North Carolina and take on the case. As with Kate, Naomi represents an empowered woman. She’s well-read, plays the violin, and attends law school. She, too, is resilient. She manages to stay alive in the underground space and, in Chapter 85, she bravely tries to organize an attack on Casanova.

Kyle Craig is an FBI agent and Cross’s ally. The local police antagonize Cross, and so does the FBI agent in charge of the case. Yet Craig uses his authority to make Cross central to the case. He encourages Cross’s singular, superhero characterization, telling him, “Stay on the outside, and work directly with me” (214). Cross follows Craig’s suggestions, which allows him to get away with extralegal conduct like breaking into Sachs’s home and assaulting Sikes.

Craig is a foil for the other FBI agents. Cross explains, “He wasn’t territorial like most FBI agents, and not too uptight by Bureau standards, either. Sometimes I thought that he didn’t belong in the FBI. He was too much of a human being” (209). Unlike his coworkers, Craig isn’t concerned with advancing his career or gaming the bureaucracy. Craig has compassion and a sense of duty, so he has more in common with Cross.