The Parker Inheritance

A secondary protagonist, Brandon Jones is eleven, Black, athletic, and possibly gay, though that is not confirmed in the novel. Brandon serves as a sidekick to Candice, consistently supporting her efforts to solve the mystery of the Parker inheritance. He is highly intelligent, and like Candice, loves to read, which helps him identify useful clues as they do research together. Like Candice, Brandon is also dealing with issues that are common themes in coming-of-age texts: he struggles with how to present himself socially, including how to deal with bullying, and he works on having relationships with family members that are positive for him. 

Candice’s mother, Anne, is a writer who is constantly on deadline but is also painted as fiercely supportive of her daughter. Though Anne is primarily supplementary to the plot of the novel, she also deals with significant issues, including grieving her parent, struggling to make ends meet on a tight budget, and navigating a spouse coming out as gay. These struggles help make Anne a rounder character, giving depth to her personality. 

Candice’s father, Joe, is not present for much of The Parker Inheritance, as he is located in Atlanta while Candice and her mother live in Lambert. Joe works as a contractor and is renovating the Miller house in Atlanta; he has also recently come out as gay and is dating a man, Daniel. Candice finds out about this late in the novel. Joe is characterized as caring but also as having trouble seeing his daughter fully; he only stops using Candice’s nickname, signifying ownership over his daughter and her character, when she yells at him towards the conclusion of the plot and in this way renegotiates her identity and relationship with him. 

The focus of the beginning and end of the novel, Abigail Caldwell is Candice’s grandmother and is the first person who attempts to unravel the mystery of the inheritance. Though she fails and is disgraced in the process, she carefully helps a young Candice develop skills at puzzle solving. Thus, Abigail serves as both the emotional and practical catalyst of Candice being able to solve the clues and find the Parker inheritance. 

Enoch Washington has passed away by the time Candice is unraveling the clues, yet his existence is vital to the plot of The Parker Inheritance. Born in the early 20th century, Enoch is soon challenged by the rampant racism and violence that he will face as a Black man in the South. He is resistant to this discrimination and is characterized as often making rash decisions to provoke racist white men when he is frustrated. Coach Dub is Siobhan’s father and refuses to acknowledge her relationship with Reginald Bradley, which damages their relationship significantly. Perhaps most important to the plot is Coach Dub’s facilitation of the 1957 tennis match that causes an uproar in Lambert and eventually results in Siobhan and Reginald not seeing each other for many years.

The namesake of the book and complex, mysterious letter-writer, James Parker appears to be a wealthy white man living in Denver but is actually a white-passing Black man who grew up as Reginald, or Reggie, Bradley. As a young person, Reggie has no money and very little familial support; after the fated 1957 tennis match, another white-passing man helps him re-establish himself as James Parker.

As an adult, James is characterized as being vengeful and immune to the needs of the Black community; he embraces his success with little humility. Eventually, his relationship with Siobhan pushes him to rethink this approach, and he decides to create the series of clues leading to the inheritance. The fact that Reggie doesn’t quite fit in with the Black community, yet also doesn’t fit in with the white community until he passes as white, creates a wedge between him and his love, Siobhan. The inheritance he gives the Lambert community is monetary in fact, but borne of a desire to reclaim his own cultural inheritance.