The Oligarch's Daughter

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, and illness.

The novel’s protagonist, Paul Brightman, goes by the name of Grant Anderson. He is making dinner in the kitchen of his old, restored farmhouse with his girlfriend Sarah. He has been living there for five years and works nearby, building boats. He gets a call from his friend Lyle, who runs a charter boat fishing operation. Lyle says that he is sick and cannot work the next day. He asks Paul (whom he knows as Grant) if he can take the boat out in his place. Paul, who is an avid sailor and built Lyle’s boat, agrees.

The next morning, he meets Lyle’s client—a tall, stocky man with a slight Slavic accent. When the two are out on the water, the man, who gives his name as Fredrick Newman, calls him “Paul” and tells him that he must have known this day would come. Paul panics, a struggle ensues, and he accidentally kills the man with Lyle’s spear gun. He dumps the body overboard and heads back to shore. He is horror-struck. Though he killed the man in self-defense, he has never killed anyone before.