# David Purtell Hume — Ashton-Kirk, Investigator character guide

> David Purtell Hume in Ashton-Kirk, Investigator by John T. McIntyre.

**Role:** supporting

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

**First appearance:** 0004-ii-miss-edyth-vale-states-her-case

## Snapshot

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

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [Ashton-Kirk, Investigator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/ashton-kirk-investigator)

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

### [Miss Edyth Vale States Her Case](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/ii-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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/iii-the-portraits-of-general-wayne)

Murdered in Christie Place; described as a numismatist and dealer in curiosities.

### [IV: Stillman's Theory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/vi-ashton-kirk-looks-about)

Murder victim; his rooms and the bloodstained desk are examined.

### [XI: Pendleton Is Vastly Enlightened](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xi-pendleton-is-vastly-enlightened)

The victim, glimpsed by Locke on the floor.

### [XIX: The Two Reports](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/chapters/xxiii-the-secret-of-the-portrait)

The murder victim; the case revolves around his death.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/characters/hume
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashton_kirk_investigator_se/characters