Russell Simonds

Quick Facts

• Role: Central antagonist; Wendy Garrick’s lover and primary co-conspirator
• First appearance: Chapter 53 (antique furniture store)
• Occupation: Antique furniture store manager; masquerades as Douglas Garrick, a reclusive tech CEO
• Key relationships: Wendy Garrick (lover/mastermind), Marybeth Simonds (wife), Millie Calloway (target/pawn), Douglas Garrick (victim/identity stolen)
• Status: Deceased (killed by Marybeth)

Who They Are

At his core, Russell Simonds is a counterfeit man: someone who tries on power the way he wears an expertly knotted tie. He is the polished, gym-toned “Douglas 2.0” who isn’t powerful at all—only playing the part for a payday. As such, he personifies Appearance vs. Reality, moving through scenes as a performance rather than a person, and his every choice furthers the novel’s meditation on Deception and Manipulation. The tragedy (and the irony) is that Russell wants the rewards of ruthlessness without its risks; the moment the act demands real violence, the actor disappears.

Personality & Traits

Russell’s personality is a slick veneer stretched over insecurity. He can mimic menace, imitate tenderness, and rehearse control—but the second authenticity intrudes, he wilts. His arc reveals a man driven by envy and fantasy, whose “confidence” survives only in staged moments.

• Manipulative performer: He convinces Millie he’s an abusive husband by choreographing fights and bruises—deception as his default tool—so that when she acts to “save” Wendy, she walks into their trap.
• Ambitious and greedy: Dissatisfied with managing a furniture store, he seizes Wendy’s scheme as a shortcut to wealth, treating murder as a financial strategy rather than a moral line.
• Cowardice under pressure: He balks at being shot with blanks, hesitates to hit Wendy until she goads him, and ultimately refuses to kill Douglas. Each refusal exposes that his appetite for power is smaller than his fear.
• Superficial charm: The “playful smile,” expensive suits, and meticulous grooming cultivate an aura of capability that never survives contact with real stakes.
• Performative masculinity: Stung by insults calling him “pathetic” and a “loser,” he performs toughness to reclaim status, revealing that his aggression is reactive theater, not conviction.

Character Journey

Russell enters as the “capable” co-conspirator: fit, handsome, and eerily plausible as a CEO no one ever sees. He leans into impersonation, staging domestic cruelty to bait Millie into a lethal-looking rescue. But as the plot advances from rehearsal to reality, his nerve unspools. He stalls at every threshold of violence: flinching at blanks, delaying staged hits, and finally refusing to kill Douglas in the penthouse kitchen. After Wendy kills Douglas, the performance ends and the person emerges—shaken, tearful, and unable to bear guilt—until Marybeth’s revenge cuts short even that reckoning. His arc traces a descent from polished co-actor to exposed coward, illustrating that the persona he dons can’t shield him from consequences once the mask slips.

Key Relationships

• Wendy Garrick: With Wendy Garrick, Russell’s affair is both erotic and transactional: she offers a fantasy of wealth and reinvention, and he offers a body that can pass for Douglas. As his fear grows, Wendy pivots to contempt, weaponizing shame to force compliance. Their dynamic shows how manipulation escalates when a scheme meets reality—she is the will, he the facade.

• Marybeth Simonds: With Marybeth Simonds, his twenty-year marriage becomes the collateral of his self-reinvention. He sees her as dead weight to shed once he’s “rich,” but underestimates her entirely. Marybeth’s eventual murder of Russell is a moral whiplash: the spouse he dismissed becomes the instrument of justice, flipping his power fantasy into a cautionary end.

• Millie Calloway: With Millie Calloway, everything is counterfeit. Russell interacts only as “Douglas,” carefully calibrating menace to exploit Millie’s protective instincts. Their relationship demonstrates how predators script victims into roles—Millie as savior, Russell as tyrant—until real violence exposes the script’s authors.

• Douglas Garrick: With Douglas Garrick, the relationship is predicated on theft: Russell steals Douglas’s image and plans to steal his life. His failure to pull the trigger reveals not conscience but terror; he wants the spoils of power without the cost of wielding it.

Defining Moments

Russell’s story is a sequence of masks slipping—each key scene strips away another layer of borrowed power.

• Chapter 53: “Douglas 2.0” introduction
  • At the antique store, he impresses Wendy with refinement and confidence, establishing his plausibility as Douglas’s double. Why it matters: the entire scheme rests on his face being more convincing than his character.
• The staged “murder” with blanks
  • He pretends to strangle Wendy; Millie “shoots” him with a blank—evidence planted, alibi manufactured. Why it matters: this is Russell at his peak—brave only when danger is a prop.
• Refusal to kill Douglas
  • In the penthouse kitchen, he breaks down and pleads not to do it, forcing Wendy to fire the fatal shot. Why it matters: the moment the con requires genuine brutality, the con man dissolves.
• Death in the cabin
  • Marybeth slits his throat in the bathtub after learning the truth. Why it matters: the past he disdained delivers the final verdict; his fantasy of escaping consequences is bloodily denied.

Essential Quotes

“I can’t do it,” he gulps. His brow is sweaty and his powerful eyebrows have merged together at the center of his forehead. “I can’t shoot him, Wendy. Please don’t make me do it.”
— Russell to Wendy (Chapter 58)

This is the mask falling in real time. The description—sweat, eyebrows knotted—physicalizes panic, while the plea shows that his limits are not ethical, but visceral. He’s not choosing morality; he’s succumbing to fear.

“You’re pathetic,” I spit at him. “I can’t believe you won’t do this little thing for me. We have a chance to strike it rich, and here you are, screwing it up.”
— Wendy manipulating Russell (Chapter 57)

Wendy reframes murder as a “little thing,” exposing the moral vacuum of the scheme and the leverage she uses: humiliation. Her language reveals how Russell’s masculinity is the pressure point she presses to keep the performance going.

“It’s a beautiful piece, isn’t it? ... It’s a vintage piece, but I restored it personally.”
— Russell to Wendy upon their first meeting (Chapter 53)

This line foreshadows his role: a man who specializes in restoration and presentation—making the old look new, the ordinary look rare. It’s a craftsman’s boast repurposed as a con artist’s credo, hinting that he will “restore” himself into someone else entirely.