# Inspector French’s Greatest Case — Character guide

> Key figures in Inspector French’s Greatest Case by Freeman Wills Crofts.

- [Inspector French](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/inspector_french.md): 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 
- [Mr. Duke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mr_duke.md): 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 sta
- [Mrs. X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mrs_x.md): 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
- [Mr. Vanderkemp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/vanderkemp.md): 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 f
- [Miss Duke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/miss_duke.md): 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 blo
- [Mrs. Chauncey S. Root](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mrs_chauncey_s_root.md): 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 
- [Mr. Stanley Harrington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/harrington.md): 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 h
- [Mr. Gething](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mr_gething.md): 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 
- [Mr. Williams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mr_williams.md): Clerk at Duke & Peabody.
- [Mr. Vane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/vane.md): 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 tha
- [Mr. Schoofs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/schoofs.md): Diamond dealer in Amsterdam.
- [Cissie Winter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/cissie_winter.md): Young woman who worked at Duke & Peabody.
- [Charles Gething](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/charles_gething.md): Son of Mr. Gething, also employed at the firm.
- [Mr. Jennings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/jennings.md): Assistant to Inspector French.
- [Mr. Orchard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/orchard.md): Manager of a hotel in Barcelona.
- [Sergeant Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/sergeant_carter.md): Police sergeant assisting French.
- [Susan Scott](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/susan_scott.md): Witness in the case.
- [Captain Davis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/captain_davis.md): Captain of the S.S. Enoch.
- [Colonel FitzGeorge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/colonel_fitzgeorge.md): Military man encountered during the investigation.
- [Sylvia Duke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/sylvia_duke.md): Daughter of Mr. Duke, engaged to Harrington.
- [Mr. Scarlett](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mr_scarlett.md): Businessman connected to the case.
- [Mr. Stronge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mr_stronge.md): Man who provided information to French.
- [Manley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/manley.md): Man who worked at Duke & Peabody.
- [Mrs. Henry Vane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/inspector_french_s_greatest_case_se/characters/mrs_henry_vane.md): Wife of Mr. Vane.

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