Ashton-Kirk, Investigator · Character

David Purtell Hume

A dealer in art curiosities whose respectable shopfront concealed a career of international diamond smuggling, and whose death in Christie Place opens the case.

supporting

Also known as Hume, Mr. Hume, Mr. David Purtell Hume, David, the late Mr. Hume, D. Purtell, Purtell

First appearance: Miss Edyth Vale States Her Case

As a supporting figure in Ashton-Kirk, Investigator, David Purtell Hume is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

The murder victim, whose death is the central mystery of the chapter.

In the storyAshton-Kirk, InvestigatorOpen this moment free

Hume settled in the city in 1899 as an art dealer, but the steamship records and customs portraits tell a different story: a man who slipped through the nets of Holland, Spain, and France, and who drank his way into a fatal intimacy with the elder Morris. His specialty was contraband, and his specialty was escape — until a revolver shot and a parrot-like scream ended both. His hidden past is the buried foundation on which every suspect's motive rests, and the investigators' patient reconstruction of his double life gives the mystery its historical depth.

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Character Web

27 connections

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Other

Character groups

Core suspects and witnesses
Protagonist

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point

This is the dramatic climax because it marks the emotional and psychological peak where Pendleton expresses sy…

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In the story

David Purtell Hume appears across 9 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Ashton-Kirk, Investigator
The murder victim, whose death is the central mystery of the chapter.
Miss Edyth Vale States Her Case
Described as a flabby, mocking shopkeeper and numismatist who seems to threaten Allan Morris.
III: The Portraits of General Wayne
Murdered in Christie Place; described as a numismatist and dealer in curiosities.
IV: Stillman's Theory
The murder victim, found dead in his showroom with a bayonet wound and a bruise on the forehead.
VI: Ashton-Kirk Looks About
Murder victim; his rooms and the bloodstained desk are examined.
XI: Pendleton Is Vastly Enlightened
The victim, glimpsed by Locke on the floor.
XIX: The Two Reports
Revealed through Burgess's report to have been a smuggler with a history in Bayonne, and to have known Richard Morris.
XX: One of the Old Sort
Described by Tobin as a frightening figure at the Coffin Club who boasted of fighting ancestry and claimed descent from a Revolutionary officer.
The Secret of the Portrait
The murder victim; the case revolves around his death.

Chapter companion notes

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See David Purtell Hume in Miss Edyth Vale States Her Case

See David Purtell Hume in Ashton-Kirk, Investigator