Content Warning: This guide’s source text discusses abuse of prescription substances and alcohol, suicide, physical and sexual abuse of children, violence, and sexual assault. The source text relies on anti-Black stereotypes and contains some anti-Black epithets.

Frederick “Ricky” Hawthorne, lawyer, and co-founder of the Chowder Society spent most of his life in the town of Milburn. He is 70 years old and prone to colds. He left Milburn only for university, law school, and the military. He dresses in suits with bowties and shares his law practice with Sears James. Ricky married Stella Hawthorne and the two have two children with whom they are not very close. Ricky counts himself among the upper crust in Milburn. Ricky loves his small town, loves knowing the people he sees in the square, and loves his position as a prominent lawyer and society elder. He looks the other way when Stella cheats, as he knows she only stays in Milburn for him.

Ricky is a main protagonist in the novel, along with the other members of the Chowder Society. He and his friends caused the death of Eva Galli when they were young, an act which binds the group tightly around the secret.