# Hand and Ring — Character guide

> Key figures in Hand and Ring by Anna Katharine Green.

- [Mr. Byrd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_byrd.md): A lawyer with a detective's instincts, Byrd enters the Clemmens case expecting to help—and finds his conscience tangled with a colleague's ruthless methods.
- [Imogene Dare](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/imogene_dare.md): A foundling turned commanding beauty, Imogene Dare holds the ring, the secret, and the heart of the accused—yet no one can read her.
- [Mr. Orcutt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_orcutt.md): A celebrated lawyer who never married and never explained, Orcutt takes the defense—while a diamond ring and an old Nebraska name quietly implicate him.
- [Mr. Hickory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_hickory.md): Frank Hickory is the thick-skinned detective who'll stage a cruel farce to close a case—and sleep soundly after, if the evidence holds.
- [Craik Mansell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/craik_mansell.md): A sombre, herculean young man at the center of the murder inquiry, Craik Mansell is watched by detectives who cannot decide if he is victim or killer.
- [Mr. Mansell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_mansell.md): An older Mansell whose name surfaces in the boarding-house confusion, shadowing the younger man whose identity the detectives are trying to pin down.
- [Mr. Gryce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_gryce.md): Mr. Gryce enters the widow Clemmens investigation as the seasoned mind called in when local effort stalls, and he immediately fastens on the one detail everyone else dismissed: the ring found on the dining-room floor. Hi
- [Mr. Hildreth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_hildreth.md): Gouverneur Hildreth moves through the early investigation as the man the circumstantial evidence keeps circling back to — he wore a ring on the day of the murder, he took it off during the inquest, and a detective named 
- [Mrs. Clemmens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mrs_clemmens.md): Mary Ann Clemmens is the still center of the storm: a widow found bleeding and insensible at the foot of her dining-room clock, her last words a jumble that might name her killer or might name no one at all. The ring dis
- [Miss Firman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/miss_firman.md): Miss Firman appears as a witness of conscience, insisting that Craik inherited his mother's forehead, eyes, and principles, and that no one will convince her otherwise. Her testimony is cut short when she is called from 
- [Mr. Ferris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_ferris.md): Mr. Ferris is the state's steady hand in the courtroom, a prosecutor who has 'passed the point where sympathy could interfere with his action' and who methodically extracts from Imogene Dare the admission that she refuse
- [Mr. Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_brown.md): A detective or assistant who aids in the investigation.
- [Miss Tremaine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/miss_tremaine.md): A woman who appears in the social circle of the characters.
- [Judge Evans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/judge_evans.md): Judge Evans has worn the ermine for many years and is known for retaining 'the feeling heart' beneath it, so that he often shows more emotion in pronouncing a sentence than the condemned man shows in hearing it. On the m
- [Mrs. Firman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mrs_firman.md): An older woman, possibly related to Miss Firman.
- [Mr. Duryea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_duryea.md): A minor character, possibly a lawyer or witness.
- [Mr. Symonds](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/mr_symonds.md): A minor character, possibly a clerk or official.
- [Clement Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters/clement_smith.md): A minor character, possibly a witness.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/hand_and_ring_se/characters