The Water Knife

Lucy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who moved to Phoenix to cover the city’s demise. She has a sister, Anna, who lives in Vancouver, Canada with her husband and children. Anna is often concerned about Lucy living in Phoenix, as the city is dangerous and chaotic. Anna tries to persuade Lucy to come live with her in Vancouver; Lucy has the credentials to leave Phoenix at any time. Lucy, however, feels a connection to Phoenix now that she’s lived there for so long. Lucy attempts to write about the city’s collapse without getting herself too personally involved. This becomes impossible as Lucy becomes friends with people like Jamie, Timo, and Charlene. Lucy originally keeps a hesitant distance from the subject of her stories, but as the novel progresses, she wants to involve herself directly in the story of Jamie’s murder. 

Maria is a young Texas migrant who lost her family crossing the New Mexico border to make it to Phoenix. Maria attempts to make a living by selling water and paying rent to the Vet. Maria feels very close to her friend Sarah and does her best to protect her. Maria is aware that her father had an idealistic view of the United States and didn’t see his family’s situation clearly. Unlike her father, Maria wants to see the world without any illusions. At one time, she tried to make Toomie fall in love with her so that he could protect her. Over the course of the novel, Maria discovers that this sort of safety is itself an illusion, and in order to survive, she must escape the collapsing city of Phoenix.

Case, Angel’s boss, is known as the “Queen of the Colorado” and started the Cypress developments in Las Vegas. Angel often describes her as calm and calculating, constantly gathering information and organizing it in a way to form ideas for her next move. Case is ruthless, not thinking twice before cutting off the water supply to a city like Carver City. Many of the Texans and Zoners that surround the wasteland outside of Las Vegas hate Case because of what she did to their own water supplies. For some reason, Case trusts Angel, but this trust is eventually eroded over the course of the novel after it’s revealed that everyone who comes across the senior water rights that she’s after flips loyalties.   

Jamie was a lawyer who worked for Phoenix Water. He was also a close friend to Lucy. Jamie was the first person to discover the senior water rights belonging to Phoenix and decided to sell them to California for a large sum of money. Instead of merely selling the water rights to California, Jamie also decided to make Las Vegas an offer, just so he could get back at them, having already promised the rights to the Calies. Jamie was also cynical about people and despised their stupidity for not doing anything about the impending water crisis. Julio eventually tortures and murders Jamie after learning that Jamie sold the water rights that were promised to Julio. 

Ratan was a water lawyer working for Ibis in California. He is the one who bought the senior water rights from Jamie, but instead of delivering them to California, Ratan decides to flip the water rights and make a score for himself. When Ratan contacts Julio and Las Vegas wanting to make a deal, Julio ends up murdering Ratan to acquire the rights. Ratan lived in one of the apartments in the Taiyang and was considered a “fiver.” He was also a regular client of Sarah, paying her for sex. Ratan eventually gives Maria a copy of Cadillac Desert, which, before he died, contained the physical paper water rights that everyone is searching for. 

Toomie is a friend to Maria. He is described as a “[b]ig strong guy who could protect his business, a tower of strength that also shaded Maria as she poured water” (87). Toomie sells pupusas near the construction site of the Taiyang alongside Maria. He used to work in construction, building homes and making good money before all the surrounding neighborhoods dried up when their water was cut. Toomie feels an obligation to look out for Maria and believes she deserves a chance at a decent life. He refuses Maria’s romantic advances and is more of a father figure to her. Toomie does his best to protect Maria from Esteban and Cato when they come looking to collect money from her.

Julio is another one of Case’s agents. He was sent to Phoenix to help infiltrate the city and set up information networks there for Las Vegas. He is shorter than Angel with a goatee and tattoos running up both of his arms: “a dragon coiled up one arm, and on the other, an image of La Santa Muerte, Lady Death, displayed in intricate glory” (208). Julio ends up double-crossing Angel and Case in order to make a play on the senior water rights for himself. Angel kills Julio after he finds him torturing Lucy to try to get information about Ratan’s laptop

The Vet is a gangster who controls many of the slums and neighborhoods surrounding the Taiyang. People pay his thugs tax and rent to live and work on the land that he controls. The Vet is described as “solidly built. A bull of a man, with thick shoulders and a shock of white hair and blue eyes” (130). The Vet has a compound where his thugs hang out during the day and where he keeps a pack of hyenas caged up. He uses the hyenas to torture people who don’t pay rent.