Monte Rissell

Monte Rissell is a young man serving time for rape and murder, and one of the first subjects Holden Ford sits down with in his fledgling FBI interview project. Personable and self-pitying, he narrates his crimes with an aggrieved logic, blaming women, bad luck, and circumstance for what he did.

Sam Strike plays him with a boyish, wheedling charm that keeps slipping to reveal something colder underneath, and the writing lets him talk long enough that his self-justifying logic starts to sound almost reasonable. That queasy persuasiveness is the whole point: he's the first proof of how dangerous a good talker can be.