Allie Hartley Character Analysis

Freckly, redheaded Allie Hartley is the second-in-command to local police chief Derek Bell in the rural Australian town where they both grew up. As an adolescent, Allie talked a lot with her best friend Sarah Blue about moving away and chasing their dreams—but after Sarah Blue disappeared at age 14, Allie stayed in town and became a police officer, obsessed with finding her friend alive one day. About 20 years later, when seasoned detective Michael Teller comes to town to investigate a possible homicide, Allie asks him to review the file on Sarah Blue’s disappearance. When Michael points out that the file is oddly thin, Allie agrees and tells him she thinks that the police chief at the time, Derek’s father Gerry Bell, didn’t investigate thoroughly because he believed Sarah had just run away and would turn up soon. Eventually, with help from mysterious teenager Isobel Catching and the ghost of Michael’s 15-year-old daughter Beth Teller, Michael finds the bunker where serial killer Alexander Sholt and his partner have been holding girls captive before murdering them—and Allie, investigating the bunker with him, recognizes Derek’s jacket inside. Allie is devastated by the twin revelations that she, a trained police officer, didn’t realize her boss and colleague was a serial killer and that her friend Sarah was likely Alexander and Derek’s first victim. At first, Allie seems poised to crumble under the weight of her grief and horror—but when Michael tells her that she should focus on getting justice for Alexander and Derek’s victims by hunting down their accomplices, Allie’s commitment to legal justice and her long-ago friendship with Sarah strengthen her, and she resolves to keep doing her job.