Martin Sawyer

Martin Sawyer, the father of Dominic Sawyer, is one of the adults who gives Grace Town a home after a childhood marked by loss and instability. His brief but consequential appearances correct Henry Isaac Page’s assumptions about Grace’s family, establish the Sawyers’ enduring care for her, and place Martin at the center of the search when she goes missing on Dominic’s birthday.

Identity and Family

Martin is introduced as a small, balding man who appears at the Sawyer home while Henry waits outside for Grace. Henry recognizes him as the man who regularly comes by in the afternoons to pick up Grace’s car, although the reason for that routine is not specified. Martin recognizes Henry by name and says that the family has heard about him, suggesting that Henry is already known within Grace’s close circle.

Martin identifies himself as Dominic’s father and explains that he and Mary are not Grace’s parents. Their connection to her is nevertheless familial: she moved in with them about a month before the crash, and after Dominic died they insisted that she remain in their home. Martin describes her as practically their daughter, a distinction that conveys both the limits and the depth of their bond.

Revealing Grace’s Place in the Sawyer Home

Martin’s offer to let Henry wait in Dominic’s room becomes an unexpected disclosure. He starts to call it Dominic’s room, then corrects himself because it is Grace’s room now. Henry has not understood that Dominic lived in the house, or that Grace’s connection to Martin and Mary reaches beyond friendship with their son. Martin is surprised that Grace has not explained this to him.

The correction changes the meaning of Grace’s presence in the house. She is not simply visiting a former boyfriend’s family; she has lived in Dominic’s old room since the crash and remains under the care of the people who were once his parents. Martin’s plain explanation supplies facts Grace had withheld, without reducing their relationship to a single label. The room itself makes the overlap concrete: Dominic’s former place in the household has become Grace’s continuing refuge.

Grace later recounts meeting Dominic at nine, after her father had died and her mother had been away for days. Her uncle brought her to Mary, a woman he worked with, where Dominic welcomed her into play and where she felt accepted by his family. Martin is not described as part of that first meeting, so the memory does not establish what he did then. It does, however, place the household he shares with Mary within the childhood bond that Grace remembers as a source of belonging. His later insistence that she stay after Dominic’s death continues that connection.

The Search on Dominic’s Birthday

Martin’s most urgent appearance comes on the first birthday since Dominic’s death. He leaves Henry a voice message, sounding panicked and tearful, and identifies himself as Dominic’s father. He begins explaining that Grace is missing, but Henry does not hear the message through to its end. The message is enough to make him realize that something has happened to Grace.

When Martin speaks with Grace’s mother and Henry during the search, he looks deeply haggard. He reports that police have advised them to check Grace’s usual places first. He and Mary plan to drive to the lake house, where Grace and Dominic had considered going for Dominic’s birthday. Martin also intends to call Grace’s friends at East River and ask them to check the library where she wrote, the café where she regularly ate breakfast, and the houseboat at the marina. His list reveals a network of places in Grace’s life that Henry did not know, and his practical search proceeds alongside his evident distress.

After Henry finds Grace at the abandoned train station’s underground pool, he calls Martin. Martin answers immediately and asks whether she is alive. Henry tells him that he has found her and that he is bringing her home; Martin thanks him. The exchange gives the search a direct family stake: Martin’s first concern is Grace’s survival, and Henry’s discovery reconnects her with the household that has continued to care for her.

Character and Narrative Role

Martin’s importance lies partly in what his presence reveals. At first, Henry sees him as a familiar but unexplained figure connected to Grace’s car. Martin’s introduction of himself as Dominic’s father then overturns Henry’s assumption that he is Grace’s father and exposes the domestic history Henry has not been told. The disclosure makes Grace’s silences legible as withheld knowledge without implying that Martin himself has concealed it.

His actions are chiefly acts of recognition and care: he welcomes Henry into the home, names Grace’s place in the family, and organizes a search across the places she knows. The novel gives him little independent interior life and does not depict him at Grace’s recovery or at the later release of Dominic’s keepsakes. Within those limits, he serves as a steady link between the past Grace shared with Dominic and the support she still has after his death. His insistence that she remain with the Sawyers gives that care a lasting form, while his frightened call on Dominic’s birthday shows how precarious her absence feels to the family.