Character guide

Mr. Reginald Fortune

major

Also known as Reginald, Mr. Fortune, Fortune, Reggie Fortune, Reggie, Dr. Fortune, old Dr. Fortune

Fortune became a specialist in the surgery of crime only because the Criminal Investigation Department kept appealing to his multifarious knowledge, and he resents every minute of it. He likes ordinary things and ordinary people, which is precisely why his judgment cuts through the tangles that baffle Scotland Yard. When the tape machine clicks out Sir Albert Lunt's murder, Reggie groans that the beggars get killed just to bother him, then goes to work anyway.

Mr. Lomas

supporting

Also known as Lomas, the Hon. Stanley Lomas, Stanley Lomas

Lomas is a family skeleton-haunted official who confesses his limitations freely and envies Fortune's spirits. His maiden sister runs a princely school at Tormouth where rooms are mysteriously ransacked and photographs stolen, and he wants Fortune to investigate without quite believing it is a real case. Meanwhile Horace Kimball telephones twice a day demanding a scapegoat for a financial scandal, and the whole Government is on Lomas's neck.

Horace Kimball

supporting

Also known as Mr. Kimball, Kimball, the late Kimball, Old Mr. Kimball, young Mr. Kimball, the Rt. Hon. Horace Kimball

Kimball is ridiculously rich, reputedly honest, and pathetically anxious that everyone should suppose he has been educated. Only he and his private secretary Sandford knew which companies the primary provisional scheme concerned, and when a Stock Exchange boom follows, Kimball is huffy at any suggestion that Sandford could be the leak. He means to be civil, but he is mad to catch the fellow who gave his scheme away, and he calls Lomas twice a day to say so.

Superintendent Bell

supporting

Also known as Bell, Mary

Bell belongs to the official machinery that Fortune alternately aids and outruns, the men who gather facts and follow the forms. In the Charlecote affair, where a son finds his father lying dead in the street outside his own door, Bell's investigation must contend with family quarrels, a sculptor's stubbornness, and Fortune's sleepy, devastating questions. He is the professional whose case it is, and whose conclusions will either hold or crumble under Reggie's scrutiny.

Geoffrey Charlecote

supporting

Also known as Geoffrey, Mr. Geoffrey

Geoffrey was one of the great men of his college, socially magnificent and even suspected of brains, but he was bored by Mayfair and refused to go into Parliament. When he discovered he wanted to be a sculptor, his father raged and forbade it, and Geoffrey went abroad anyway. Now he has quarrelled with the old guv'nor, found him lying in his blood, and knows the police suspect him, which is why he grabs Reggie Fortune on the courthouse steps and begs for help.

Sir Albert Lunt

supporting

Also known as Albert Lunt, Sir Albert, Albert, Lunt, Herbert

Sir Albert built a rococo palace not quite in Park Lane and pantomime splendours at Prior's Colney, a ballroom in the lake and a dining-room panelled in silver. His photograph shows a commonplace enough face until you see the expression underneath, a look of insolence and conceit of singular force, the secret of his success. When he is found shot in his deer park, the tea-merchant whistles that he won't be missed, and Reggie agrees that someone was bound to murder the animal.

Birdie Bolton

supporting

Also known as Birdie, poor Birdie Bolton, poor Birdie, dear Birdie

By daylight she is a tweedy, over-dressed British spinster in the quiet suburb of Westhampton; by night she is a gaunt, diamond-draped spectacle who screams like a seagull and dances like a dozen women fighting. She has never dreamed in her life until now, and the dreams—motorbuses, parrots in the bathroom, a noise that vanishes—frighten a woman who insists she neither drinks nor drugs. When Reggie asks if anything is worrying her, she blushes, grips his hand like a man, and says only, 'Be good!'

Alice Warenne

supporting

Also known as Warenne, Alice, little Alice Warenne, Alice Ducher, Miss Crowland

She arrived at the Devon school with the highest introductions, her father a distinguished Englishman living abroad, her French better than her English. Miss Lomas calls her a sweet nature and can imagine nothing against her, yet a Bohemian-looking stranger accompanied her father on a recent visit, and the day after, a curious figurine turned up in the library. Reggie wants to see her 'just for to admire'—and to find out what a child of sixteen is doing in the middle of his case.

Herbert Charlecote

supporting

Also known as Herbert, Mr. Charlecote, Mr. Herbert Charlecote, Mr. Herbert, old Charlecote

Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, Herbert emerged polished and ordinary, successful in the most pompous drawing-rooms and dutiful in all things. Where Geoffrey scandalized the family by going abroad to be a sculptor, Herbert obeyed. That contrast is the quiet engine of the Charlecote household: the old man's favor, the cousin's resentment, and a family temper inherited from a railway-contractor grandfather who disdained the ten commandments.

The Archduchess

supporting

Also known as Archduchess

She moves in the highest circles, where a tea party is never merely tea and an invitation can be a summons. Around her gather the titled, the ambitious, and the compromised—people whose private lives are matters of public consequence. When Reggie is drawn into her orbit, his sleepy surgeon's manner has to contend with the delicate machinery of rank, where a scandal is a weapon and discretion is the only currency.

Mrs. Sandford

supporting

Also known as Sandford, Mrs. Ellen Edith Sandford

She belongs to the respectable, well-connected world where reputations are guarded and old associations are not discussed. Her link to the Kimball affair makes her one of the quiet hinges on which the investigation turns—someone whose silence or testimony could shift what is known. Reggie's method is to keep her interested, and to notice what a lady of her standing chooses not to say.

Hilda Crowland

supporting

Also known as Hilda

She moves through the Charlecote circle with the frankness of youth and the sharpness of someone who has learned to read a room. Where the men quarrel over money and reputation, Hilda sees the human cost—and is not always careful about saying so. Her presence gives the case its emotional stakes: the question of who gets hurt when a family's pride turns to violence.

Victor Lunt

supporting

Also known as Victor, Mr. Victor Lunt, Victor Lunt, Mr. Victor, brother Victor, Mr. Lunt

Victor Lunt belongs to the Lunt family whose diamond fortunes and South African past shadow the case of Sir Albert's death. Where his brother Albert was loud and notorious, Victor is smooth, watchful, and speaks in lowered voices about discretion. His careful calm makes him useful to the family business and quietly suspect to anyone asking why a man so composed should be so careful about what he says.

Sir Lawson Hunter

supporting

Also known as Sir Lawson

Sir Lawson Hunter occupies the respectable heights of politics and society, the kind of man whose name opens doors and whose actions ripple far beyond his own career. He is connected to the Lunt family's affairs in ways that make his testimony valuable and his motives worth questioning. His presence turns a country-house death into something with political consequence, and his careful handling of Reggie Fortune suggests he knows more than he is willing to say.

Mr. Rand

supporting

Also known as Rand, the elusive Rand, The elusive Rand, Mason, Rand-Mason

Mr. Rand is the tenant nobody quite knows, a few weeks in a Montmorency House flat, no visitors, civil but distant, and then gone. When a corpse is found in the well beneath his window, his absence becomes the case's most conspicuous fact. Reggie Fortune suspects the whole affair is the work of an able, masterful madman whose logic will look perfectly rational once combed out, and Rand is the shape that logic keeps pointing toward.

Mr. Cranford

supporting

Also known as Cranford, The unknown Cranford, the unknown Cranford, V. Cranford, Vernon Cranford, Vernon

Cranford exists in the case as a name that keeps appearing without quite resolving, a figure whose connection to the Lunt family and to the crimes around them is more felt than seen. He is the kind of unknown who forces Reggie to work backwards from fragments, testing each scrap of identity against the facts. His presence matters because the case cannot close until the question of who Cranford really is has been answered.

Dr. Newton

supporting

Also known as Newton, Colourless Dr. Newton, the late Newton

Dr. Newton is a quiet medical man whose life and death sit at the edge of the Lunt case, unremarkable in manner and yet impossible to ignore once he is gone. His profession places him near secrets that patients tell only their doctors, and his death raises the question of what he knew and who needed him silent. Reggie's investigation of Newton's end becomes a test of whether the case's respectable surface can survive the facts underneath.

Donald Gordon

supporting

Also known as Mr. Donald Gordon, Gordon, Mr. Gordon

Donald Gordon moves in the world of business where the Lunt fortune was made, a man whose dealings put him close to the family's money and its quarrels. He is the sort of figure who knows the practical details others prefer to leave vague, and his position makes him both useful and vulnerable when the case turns. His entanglement with the Lunts means that what he says, and what he chooses not to say, carries weight in the early unraveling of the crime.

May Weston

supporting

Also known as Weston, Miss Weston, that Miss Weston

May Weston belongs to the closed world of Miss Lomas's school, where new girls arrive rarely and only with the best introductions. Her disappearance turns a placid playing-field of white dresses and tennis courts into a puzzle, and it is her absence that first makes Reggie suspicious of the polished newcomers around her. The tension she embodies—innocence versus the calculated interest of adults who come to visit—drives the early investigation and gives the case its human stakes.

Miss Joan Amber

minor

Also known as Miss Amber

A woman whose inheritance is at the center of a mystery.

The Archduke Leopold

minor

Also known as Leopold, Archduke Leopold, The Archduke

A royal figure whose actions cause diplomatic trouble.

Jack Mason

minor

Also known as Old Jack Mason

An older man with ties to the Rand mystery.

Secretary Sandford

minor

Also known as Sandford

A secretary involved in the Kimball case.

Nurse Dauntsey

minor

A nurse involved in the sleeping companion case.

The Comte de Spoleto

minor

Also known as Spoleto, Comte de Spoleto, That scoundrel Spoleto

A foreign nobleman with a dubious reputation.

Flora

minor

Also known as Miss Flora

A young woman connected to the Charlecote family.

The Archduchess Ianthe

minor

Also known as Ianthe, the Archduchess

A royal woman with a secret that impacts the plot.

Inspector Mordan

minor

Also known as Mordan, Bring Mordan

A police inspector assisting in investigations.

Maurice

minor

Also known as The Archduke Maurice, the Archduke Maurice

Another archduke involved in the royal intrigue.

Parker

minor

Also known as Serjeant Parker

A police sergeant working on the cases.

Mrs. Betts

minor

A housekeeper or landlady with knowledge of events.

Radnor Hall

minor

Also known as Radnor, Hall

A location or person associated with a crime scene.

Peter

minor

A minor character who appears in the narrative.

Dr. Gerald Barnes

minor

Also known as Gerald Barnes, Barnes

A doctor who may be involved in a case.

Samuel Baker

minor

Also known as Sam, Samuel

A servant or worker who provides information.

Cousin Herbert

minor

Also known as Herbert, The evasive, elusive Cousin Herbert

A relative of the Charlecotes with a secretive nature.

Jane Brown

minor

Also known as VI Jane Brown, Jane

A woman whose identity is central to the final case.

Stephenson Charlecote

minor

Another member of the Charlecote family.

Bert

minor

A minor character who appears briefly.

Mr. Nastitch

minor

Also known as Nastitch

A foreigner involved in the plot.

Gorton

minor

A minor character with a brief role.

The Hottentot Venus

minor

Also known as Venus

A reference to a historical figure used in a case.

Lucia Charlecote

minor

Also known as Lucia

A female member of the Charlecote family.

The Prince of Ragusa

minor

Also known as The Prince

A foreign prince who appears in a scene.

Holt

minor

Also known as The good Holt

A servant or helper in the story.

Ellen Kimball

minor

A female relative of Horace Kimball.

Lunt Brothers

minor

The business entity of the Lunt family.

Beaver Charlecote

minor

Also known as Charlecote

A member of the Charlecote family with a nickname.

Sir Thomas

minor

A minor titled character.

Miss Somers

minor

A woman mentioned in passing.

Prior

minor

A minor character with a small role.

Brer Lomas

minor

Also known as Lomas

A relative of Stanley Lomas.

Sir Jenkin Totteridge

minor

Also known as Totteridge

A minor official or gentleman.

Moss and Gordon

minor

Also known as Moss, Gordon

A business firm mentioned in the story.

Ducher

minor

A surname associated with Alice Warenne.

Sophonisba

minor

A historical or literary reference used as a name.

Elise

minor

A maid or servant character.

Warren

minor

A minor character with a brief appearance.

Shortman

minor

A minor character mentioned in the narrative.