Will Stewart

In the words of Kirkus Reviews, “Will…is an endearing narrator. He’s lovestruck by his gorgeous, intelligent, and strong-willed wife; has his heart and social conscience in the right place; and is boyishly thrilled by ‘the other thing’…” which is what he calls his newfound ability. Kirkus also states, “Will’s narrative voice is amusing, intelligent, and humane; he draws readers in with his wit, appreciation for his wife, and his flight-drunk joy.” Pilot. Smartass. Married to and deeply in love with Andrea Katherine Taylor Stewart (“Andy” or sometimes “Dee”). When we meet Will he works for Earl Jackson at Essex County Air Service as a charter pilot and flight instructor. Will’s survival after a midair collision is not only a mystery (having fallen from 500 feet at over 140 miles per hour) but the catalyst for “the other thing” which makes Will vanish.

Andrea Katherine Taylor Stewart

Patrol sergeant with the City of Essex Police Department. Will’s beautiful, brilliant and strong-willed wife is a woman who refuses to be defeated by anything, which plays a role in how they met. Andy chose a path in law enforcement from an early age, which ultimately led to a confrontation with her wealthy father who paved a path for her at Harvard Law and envisioned a career with a high-powered legal firm.

Pidge

Cassidy Evelyn Page. Known to her fellow aviators as “Pidge” which is short for Pigeon because she talks “dirty and she flies.” Pidge is a little under five feet of coiled cobra with short blonde hair, a disarming pixie smile and a mouth like a dockworker. She’s also the best pilot Will ever trained or has ever known. She arrived at the door of Essex County Air Service at the age of sixteen wanting to learn to fly, and at age 23 holds every rating including Airline Transport Pilot. She went from student to hired instructor and charter pilot. Pidge and Earl Jackson, the owner/boss of Essex County Air Service, get along like gasoline and an open flame, but their loyalty to each other is unbending.

Rosemary

She is known as the Goddess of The Sacred Schedule at Essex County Air Service. Rosemary is said to have flown with the Wright brothers and had an affair with Jimmy Doolittle, all of which would make her around a hundred and fifty years old. In fact, she’s been the rock-solid foundation of the Essex County Air Service operation. Rosemary was the first to see the bond between Will Stewart and his future wife.

Rosemary II

Amanda Franklin. The woman who was hired by the original Rosemary to work the front desk of Essex County Air Service. When Rosemary replaced herself, she informed Earl Jackson, who chose to call the replacement Rosemary II rather than learn her name. Since then, Rosemary II has lived up to and filled the shoes of the original Goddess of The Sacred Schedule.

Earl Jackson

Owner of Essex County Air Service. A man with a perpetual scowl on his face. Earl exhibits two emotions: Anger and Rage. Earl Jackson’s flying career began in the late fifties and touched some of the heroes and luminaries of aviation. Earl is the living embodiment of the old adage: “How do you make a small fortune in aviation? Start with a large fortune.” He made millions with a technology for boring holes in the earth, and poured that fortune into Essex County Air Service, the Fixed Base Operation (FBO) at Essex County Airport, a flight school and air charter operation. Nothing strikes fear in Earl’s heart…except perhaps Pidge.

Lane Franklin

The brilliant, precocious, beautiful teen daughter of Amanda Franklin. Lane harbors a secret crush on Will, but revels in having Andy as her best friend and confidant. Lane’s intellect is off the charts. She dreams of flying, although her mother is an obstacle to that dream, perhaps because she deals with pilots on a day-to-day basis. Will encourages that dream whenever they meet by asking Lane, “Who are you going to fly for?” to which Lane draws her reply from a memorized catalog of the world’s airlines and aircraft.

Chief Tom Ceeves

Police Chief Tom Ceeves heads the City of Essex Police Department. Chief Ceeves is six feet and seven inches tall, weighs somewhere north of 270 pounds and speaks in a deep baritone voice that could have auditioned for Darth Vader. The Chief met Andrea Taylor during a stint as a visiting instructor at the county technical college that she attended. He instantly recognized her passion for law enforcement and hired her straight out of graduation, guiding her to the rank of Sergeant, and eventually promoting her to Detective. Tom Ceeves almost never wears a uniform or carries a weapon. Some say it’s because any gun would be mistaken for a toy in his massive hands. More likely it’s because his physical presence is enough to stop any crime.

Detective Greg LeMore

Will and Andy meet Greg LeMore during their adventure in Milwaukee in the first DIVISIBLE MAN novel. LeMore is a Detective with the Milwaukee Police Department known for doing his best work on a laptop. Soft-spoken, physically wiry and always looking like he needs a shave, even if he just had one, he is also known for his barista skills. LeMore’s computer software and hardware knowledge is prized by his department, along with his skill for building exotic electronic devices.

Lee Donaldson

Will’s first encounter with Lee Donaldson barely registers during a time when Donaldson served as a security consultant to a billionaire. Donaldson later surfaces as a Special Agent with the FBI, which is a career that preceded his security gig. Ex-military, ex- and then returned-FBI, Donaldson is in his mid-forties and a sharp investigator with a penchant for straying from the lines drawn by his superiors that usually pays off. His relationship with Will suffers from a lack of trust on Will’s part.

Bargo Litton

First met at the Essex County Wedding of the Century where he is one of a handful of the extremely wealthy present to witness the marriage of State Senator Bob Stone’s daughter Sandra to a political up and comer named Todd Jameson. Litton is one of America’s monied kings, ranked the seventh or eighth wealthiest in the world, depending on how the stock market closes. His riches spring from energy and he uses a share of them to guide the political path of the country.

Sandy Stone

One of only a few women who can tug men’s attention away from Andrea Taylor, Sandy Stone is the beautiful blonde daughter of a Wisconsin State Senator. At odds with her pedigree, her passion in life is education. With looks, intellect and upbringing that could have propelled her to the rare air of society, corporate culture or politics, she instead finds her true calling at the James Madison Elementary School teaching kindergarten. She later falls reluctantly into the role of director of an education foundation.

Arun Dewar

Fresh from a masters degree program at Northwestern University, Arun’s path from India to London to Chicago to Essex lands him a job as the desperately needed assistant to Sandy Stone in her role as director of the Christine and Paulette Paulesky Education foundation. He is a gift from the heavens for Sandy, and immediately takes the Foundation’s considerable workload off her shoulders. Arun eventually works with Will who pilots him around the country for the purpose of giving the Foundation’s considerable fortune away to small school districts in need. The son of a wealthy Indian woman and British father, Arun is a workaholic who might never have looked up from his laptop if not for a charming pixie that enters his life.

Dr. Doug Stephenson

When Earl Jackson learns that the FAA is requiring Will to be examined by a neurologist, Earl takes Will to see one of the best. Dr. Doug Stephenson has known Earl Jackson since Stephenson was just an orderly in a military hospital during the Vietnam War. An old debt and a lasting friendship gets Will in the door to see Stephenson whose calendar is booked out past the horizon. It is through Stephenson that the first clues to the nature of the “the other thing” come to light.

Lillian Farris

Brilliant, eccentric, and more than a little paranoid, Dr. Lillian Farris has a resume in astrophysics that would stun the reader if it were not largely classified. Lillian finds her way to Will in a peculiar manner that leaves Will and Andy wondering what part of her is real and what part is a little crazy, and leaves Andy deeply doubting the woman. A former employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and half a dozen other government agencies, Lillian now works hard to exist completely off the grid and out of the government’s line of sight. Lillian is also an occasional sexual companion to Dr. Doug Stephenson.

Spiro Lewko

In the aftermath of Will’s crash, rumors circulate on the Dark Web that a certain new stealth technology has surfaced. The rumors originate from a brilliant young computer programmer who happens upon a piece of debris from the object that collided with Will’s airplane. The programmer and his cohorts obtain the object and begin to research it, but before they can make significant progress, and before Will is able to intercede and recover the object which he believes is tied to “the other thing” the group is double-crossed by the billionaire, Spiro Lewko. Brilliant, obsessed, and wealthy as a result of creating a retail online empire, Spiro Lewko envisions the object as a means of unlocking interstellar transport. An uneasy relationship eventually develops between Will and Lewko, leading to strange alliances.

Candice Hammond Stubowsky Day Jackson O’Connor Thorpe

Candice Hammond Stubowsky Day Jackson O’Connor Thorpe is the five-times married ex-wife of Earl Jackson (husband number three). Prior to a marriage to Earl which lasted three weeks, she was the wife of Captain Earl Jackson’s backseater, the weapons officer who flew with him in F-4 Phantom fighters during the Vietnam War. Tommy Day was lost in an aircraft explosion that Earl survived. Candice went on to marry twice more after Earl, and eventually came to own the Renell Lodge in northern Minnesota. Will and Earl come to Candice’s rescue twice as events unfold.

Andy’s Family

Andy is the third child of Louis and Eleanor Taylor. Louis Taylor is a Harvard lawyer and the CEO of a division of the US Bank corporate family. Eleanor is the perfect corporate wife and supports her husband as the deepest critic of Andy’s choices in life, a rift that led to years of isolation from her family. Andy’s older siblings are Elliot, who followed his father’s footsteps through Harvard Law, and Lydia, who dropped out of college to marry and make babies for another lawyer and Washington lobbyist, Davis Bates. Lydia has two daughters, Harriet and Elise, who are utterly charmed by their Uncle Will. Lydia is also pregnant, as is her teenaged nanny Melanie, when she meets Will. Although three years older than Andy, Lydia could pass for her physical twin, though they are distinctly different personalities.

Special Agent Leslie Carson-Pelham

In the aftermath of a particularly harrowing adventure, Will and Andy meet Special Agent Leslie Carson-Pelham. Originally serving as a close aid to Deputy Director Mitchell Lindsay, Leslie became privy to Will’s secret. Going forward, Leslie is a frequent visitor to Will and Andy’s lives, always with an agenda, but never without Will’s best interests in mind. Smart, in her athletic mid-forties, with short dark hair and a slightly crooked smile, Leslie can be relied on to show up at unexpected moments in her signature black apparel.