Character guide

Inspector French

major

Also known as Mr. French, Mr. Inspector French

French moves through the case with quiet persistence, interviewing witnesses, tracing cheques, and following leads from London to the Continent. He is shaken by how badly he misread Mr. Duke's despair, a rare lapse that sharpens his determination. His willingness to admit uncertainty and his instinct for the telling detail make him the steady centre of a widening investigation.

Mr. Duke

major

Also known as Duke

Mr. Duke is the senior partner of Duke & Peabody, a man respected for his fairness to subordinates and his sportsmanlike acceptance of loss. Yet behind that composure he is crumbling: he confesses to French that ruin stares him in the face and that he is not the man he was. His private anguish, dismissed as mere worry, becomes the emotional fault line running beneath the entire investigation.

Mrs. X

major

Also known as the elusive Mrs. X, Mrs. French

Mrs. X exists first as a signature on cheques and a name on a hotel register, a ghost the investigation keeps almost touching. French believes that identifying her would be a real step forward, yet she remains stubbornly hidden behind aliases and borrowed identities. Her elusiveness gives the case its taunting shape: every clue seems to lead back to a woman no one can quite see.

Mr. Vanderkemp

supporting

Also known as Vanderkemp

Vanderkemp is connected to Duke & Peabody through his own firm, and his reaction to news of Gething's death is genuine shock. But when French reveals that their meeting was no coincidence, the traveller's manner shifts from surprise to wariness and then to open fear. His decision to tell his whole story, knowing it may be used against him, makes him one of the case's most ambiguous figures.

Miss Duke

supporting

Also known as Duke

Miss Duke lives at The Cedars, Hampstead, and is the person to whom the dead man's final letter is addressed. Her father's ruin and his secret burdens have been kept from her, so the investigation arrives as a double blow: a death and a revelation. She matters because the letter she receives may hold the key to what Mr. Duke was hiding.

Mrs. Chauncey S. Root

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Root, Chauncey S. Root

Mrs. Root of Pittsburg, U.S.A., is tracked across Europe by French, who finds her signature at the Savoy and again at a Swiss hotel, written in a different hand. She answers the descriptions given by American detectives and by Mr. Williams, yet something about her remains vague and unsatisfactory. Her movements and her photographs become the thread French pulls to unravel the identity of the elusive Mrs. X.

Mr. Stanley Harrington

supporting

Also known as Stanley, Mr. Harrington

Stanley Harrington belongs to the small circle orbiting the Duke household, his engagement to Sylvia tying his future to a family now staggering under scandal and loss. The theft and the killing at Duke & Peabody force him to reckon with a fiancée whose grief and uncertainty may test the bond between them. His stake in the case is personal rather than professional, which makes him a quiet barometer of how the investigation's slow progress wears on those waiting at home.

Mr. Gething

supporting

Also known as Gething, old Gething

Gething was the quiet fixture of the firm's counting-house, a man whose long service made him nearly invisible until the night he was found dead. His killing turns a straightforward theft into something darker and gives the case its name in every newspaper and police report. Though he never speaks in the passages, his absence is the wound around which the whole investigation tightens, and the question of why he died is the question French must eventually answer.

Mr. Williams

minor

Also known as Williams, old Williams

Clerk at Duke & Peabody.

Mr. Vane

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Vane, Mr. and Mrs. Vane

Mr. and Mrs. Vane occupy a property tied to the Duke estate, placing them at the quiet edge of a case that keeps reaching into unexpected addresses. Their tenancy makes them persons of interest less for what they say than for what their situation implies about access, timing, and the movements around the murdered clerk. As French works outward from the firm, the Vanes represent the kind of ordinary-seeming thread that in a Crofts novel often proves to be anything but ordinary.

Mr. Schoofs

minor

Also known as Schoofs

Diamond dealer in Amsterdam.

Cissie Winter

minor

Also known as Miss Cissie Winter, Miss Winter

Young woman who worked at Duke & Peabody.

Charles Gething

minor

Also known as Charles, Charles Gething

Son of Mr. Gething, also employed at the firm.

Mr. Jennings

minor

Also known as Jennings

Assistant to Inspector French.

Mr. Orchard

minor

Also known as Orchard

Manager of a hotel in Barcelona.

Sergeant Carter

minor

Also known as Carter

Police sergeant assisting French.

Susan Scott

minor

Also known as Miss Scott, Miss Susan Scott

Witness in the case.

Captain Davis

minor

Captain of the S.S. Enoch.

Colonel FitzGeorge

minor

Also known as this Colonel FitzGeorge

Military man encountered during the investigation.

Sylvia Duke

minor

Also known as Sylvia

Daughter of Mr. Duke, engaged to Harrington.

Mr. Scarlett

minor

Also known as Scarlett

Businessman connected to the case.

Mr. Stronge

minor

Also known as Stronge

Man who provided information to French.

Manley

minor

Also known as that Manley

Man who worked at Duke & Peabody.

Mrs. Henry Vane

minor

Also known as Mrs. Vane

Wife of Mr. Vane.

Jan Vanderkemp

minor

Also known as Vanderkemp

Relative of the diamond merchant.

Constable James Alcorn

minor

Also known as Alcorn, Constable Alcorn

Police constable assisting French.

Mrs. Ward

minor

Also known as Mrs. Elizabeth Ward, Eliza

Housekeeper at the Duke residence.

Constable Caldwell

minor

Also known as Caldwell

Police constable on duty.

Peter Dowds

minor

Also known as Dowds

Suspicious character questioned by French.

Esther Gething

minor

Also known as Esther

Daughter of Mr. Gething.

Mrs. Gamage

minor

Also known as Gamage

Woman who kept a boarding house.

Miss Maria da Silva

minor

Also known as Miss da Silva, da Silva

Woman suspected then cleared by French.

Sergeant Mackay

minor

Also known as Mackay

Scottish police sergeant.

Sergeant Nolan

minor

Also known as Nolan

Police sergeant.

George Hewett

minor

Also known as George, Hewett

Man who worked at Duke & Peabody.

Francisko Loth

minor

Also known as Loth

Man with a grudge against Vanderkemp.

Rachael

minor

Also known as this Rachael

Woman mentioned in connection with the case.

Mr. Jacques

minor

Man who knew the Vanes.

Mr. Harrod

minor

Man who sold blankets to the murderer.

Sergeant McAfee

minor

Also known as McAfee

Police sergeant in Liverpool.

Miss Gething

minor

Daughter of Mr. Gething.

William Orchard

minor

Also known as Orchard

Hotel manager in Barcelona.

Peabody

minor

Also known as Messrs. Duke & Peabody

Junior partner in the firm.

Harrington Taximan Tomkins

minor

Also known as Tomkins

Taxi driver who knew Harrington.

Mrs. Hope

minor

Woman who kept a lodging house.

John Straker

minor

Man whose name appears on a document.

Mr. Tinsley

minor

Also known as Tinsley

Man who sold jewelry to Mrs. X.

Mr. Horace Rohmer

minor

Also known as Mr. Rohmer

Man who knew the Vanes.

Billy Newton

minor

Also known as Newton

Young man who worked at Duke & Peabody.

Emily

minor

Servant at the Duke household.

Mr. Plenteous

minor

Also known as Plenteous

Man who sold blankets.

Superintendent Hayes

minor

French's superior at Scotland Yard.

Taximan James Tomkins

minor

Taxi driver who drove Mrs. X.

M. Marcel

minor

French jeweler consulted by French.

Richard Jacques

minor

Man who knew the Vanes.

Mr. Peters

minor

Also known as Peters

Man who worked at Duke & Peabody.

Miss Pearson

minor

Woman who knew the Vanes.

Enoch

minor

Also known as the Enoch

Name of the ship central to the plot.

Miss Ackfield

minor

Woman who knew the Vanes.

Mr. Pereira da Silva

minor

Also known as Mr. da Silva

Father of Miss da Silva.

Reginald Ainsley Duke

minor

Son of the murdered Mr. Duke.

Sarah Root

minor

Also known as Mrs. Helen Sadie Root

Woman claiming to be Mrs. Root.

Chauncey S. Root

minor

Also known as Mr. Root

Husband of Mrs. Root.

J. T. Dashford

minor

Also known as Dashford

Man who sold jewelry to Mrs. X.

Pinkerton

minor

Detective agency mentioned in the case.

Mrs. Jelfs

minor

Woman who knew the Vanes.

Jack

minor

Also known as Johnny

Nickname for a character.

Miss Swann

minor

Woman who knew the Vanes.

Mrs. Gill

minor

Woman who kept a lodging house.

Miss Bond

minor

Woman who knew the Vanes.

Mrs. Brent

minor

Woman who knew the Vanes.