Character guide

The Narrator

major

Also known as Unknown, I, me, my, myself, mine, your, you

He is a San Francisco operative summoned to Personville by the industrialist Elihu Willsson after the murder of Willsson's reform-minded son, and he quickly discovers that the old man who hired him is the same man who armed the thugs running the city. Cool, watchful, and willing to lie with an honest face, he trades information and false loyalties with gangsters and police alike, nudging Personville's factions toward destroying one another. His refusal to flinch at the town's casual violence is what makes him dangerous to everyone who thinks they can use him.

Max Thaler

major

Also known as Whisper, Thaler, alias Whisper, Max, VI Whisper, The Maxwell, Whisper call

Whisper runs liquor, muscle, and favors through Personville's underworld, and his rivalry with the police chief Noonan and the Starkey crowd keeps the city's violence simmering. He is suspected of killing Dinah Brand, who double-crossed him, and the narrator deliberately feeds that suspicion to the police to keep the factions at each other's throats. His quiet menace and long reach make him the pivot on which much of the town's bloodshed turns.

Dinah Brand

major

Also known as Dinah, Brand, III Dinah Brand, Miss Brand

Dinah lives in a cluttered gray cottage on Hurricane Street, trading information and affection with gangsters, radicals, and cops, always with an eye on what the transaction is worth to her. She keeps Dan Rolff, a tubercular down-and-outer, as a dependent and errand boy, slapping him in front of company even as he loves her. Her murder with an ice pick becomes the crime that pulls the narrator deeper into Personville's tangle, and the list of people who might have wanted her dead is almost as long as her list of lovers.

Elihu Willsson

major

Also known as Mr. Willsson, old Elihu, Willsson, the Willsson, Elihu, Mr. Elihu Willsson, Old Elihu

Elihu built Personville's power structure by importing gunmen to break a strike, then lost control of the men he hired, and his reform-minded son Donald was murdered after trying to expose the corruption. When the narrator presses him for the inside of Personville politics, Elihu bellows and throws him out, insisting the killing was a private matter and refusing to admit his own role. His refusal to talk sense is what forces the narrator to work the town from the bottom up, playing the gangs against each other.

Reno Starkey

major

Also known as Reno, Reno ’ ) Starkey

Reno is a rival to Whisper and a survivor of the Willsson shootout, and he gives the narrator a false alibi for the night of Dinah Brand's murder in exchange for a future claim on the narrator's loyalty. He is blunt about his motives: he needs friends because he expects to be sitting in with Whisper and Pete the Finn before long, and he wants to be sure he doesn't get the sour end of the deal. His willingness to bargain with the Op shows how fluid and self-interested Personville's alliances have become.

Dan Rolff

supporting

Also known as Dan, Rolff, Daniel Rolff

Rolff is a sick man with a tired, colorless face and a red spot on each cheek, taken in by Dinah when he had nowhere else to go and kept on laudanum and charity. He answers her door, runs her errands, and endures her casual cruelty, and the narrator senses that Rolff's devotion could curdle into something violent. His presence in Dinah's household makes him one of the first people the narrator wants accounted for when she is found stabbed, and his quiet humiliation gives the story one of its sharpest portraits of how Personville uses people up.

Noonan

supporting

Also known as fat Noonan, that fat Noonan, Tim, Tim Noonan, Presently Noonan, Noonan hisself

Noonan commands the police force as a personal racket, trading favors with bootleggers and gambling bosses while keeping his greenish eyes twinkling and his manner amiably corrupt. He is a man who can order a building shot up and then cheerfully ask a stranger to walk across the street and talk the target out, because he hates to start a fight without giving a friend a chance. His running feud with Whisper Thaler and his shifting alliances with the other Personville powers make him the pivot on which the town's violence turns.

Donald Willsson

supporting

Also known as Don Willsson, Donald, Mr. Donald Willsson, young Mrs. Willsson, Willsson

Donald Willsson is the respectable face of the Willsson family, a young editor who tried to publish a reform paper in a city his father owned body and soul. He was killed within hours of hiring the Continental Op, a .32 slug in his back, a five-thousand-dollar check certified to Dinah Brand the day before. His death is the first domino: it drags the Op into Personville's underworld and forces Elihu to reckon with the son he couldn't control.

Mickey Linehan

supporting

Also known as Mickey, Michael Linehan

Mickey Linehan works the same agency as the Op, a wisecracking professional who grins across his broad red face while complaining that nobody tells him anything. He is the Op's sounding board and occasional legman, useful for tailing suspects and trading sardonic asides about the mounting body count. His presence keeps the Op tethered to the outside world even as Personville's blood fever starts to take hold.

Dick Foley

supporting

Also known as Dick, XX Laudanum Dick Foley

Dick Foley is the agency's surveillance specialist, a low-profile operative who parks his hired car where he's told and watches doors without being noticed. He is the Op's silent backup in a city where every ally is provisional and every street corner might hide a gunman. His steady, unglamorous work is the counterweight to the Op's escalating improvisations as Personville comes apart.

Pete the Finn

supporting

Also known as Pete, the Finn, Finn

Pete the Finn is one of the four powers Elihu Willsson named as having taken his city, a rum-running boss whose warehouse and men are a standing threat in Personville's underworld. He is a businessman of violence: when Noonan accidentally burns his warehouse and kills four of his crew, the Finn's response is measured in dollars, twenty-five grand to make it right. His cool, transactional ruthlessness makes him both a target and a potential ally in the Op's campaign to set the gangs against each other.

MacSwain

supporting

Also known as Bob MacSwain, This MacSwain, Bob, Detective Bob MacSwain, Detective MacSwain

MacSwain is a detective connected to the Willsson interests, a figure whose guilt or innocence becomes a bargaining chip in the Op's peace conference. When the Op needs to break Noonan's nerve and force the gangs to come clean, he names MacSwain as Tim Noonan's killer, a move that lands like a grenade in the middle of the room. Whether MacSwain actually pulled the trigger matters less than the fact that his name can be used to make powerful men panic.

Bill Quint

supporting

Also known as Bill, Quint

Quint holds the local radical line from a green-curtained booth, vetting strangers' union credentials while nursing his own grudge against the men who broke the 1921 strike. He is wary, garrulous, and useful precisely because he talks — trading Personville's history for a drink and a look at your card. His account of Elihu's war on labor is the narrator's first map of the city's rot.

Jerry Hooper

minor

Also known as Jerry, Chinless Jerry

A nervous, minor gangster who works for Whisper and later meets a bad end.

Kid Cooper

minor

Also known as Cooper

A young hoodlum and gunman, involved in the city's gang violence.

Myrtle Jennison

minor

Also known as Jennison, Myrtle, Miss Jennison

A woman connected to the criminal underworld, briefly involved with the narrator.

Charles Proctor Dawn

minor

Also known as Chuck, Mr. Charles Proctor Dawn, Dawn, this bird Dawn, the late Charles Proctor

A shady lawyer and fixer for the criminal element, later murdered.

McGraw

minor

A police officer or detective, often seen around the station.

Ike Bush

minor

Also known as Bush

A gangster and associate of Whisper, involved in bootlegging.

Peak Murry

minor

Also known as Murry, Peak, Know Peak Murry

A criminal and gunman, part of the city's violent underworld.

Young Albury

minor

Also known as Albury, young Albury, Robert Albury

A young man from a respectable family, drawn into the city's troubles.

Helen Albury

minor

Also known as Helen, Miss Helen Albury, Albury

Young Albury's sister, a respectable woman courted by the narrator.

Lew Yard

minor

Also known as Mrs. Lew Yard, Lew, Yard, the late Lew Yard

A powerful gangster and fence, one of the city's crime bosses.

Hank O'Marra

minor

Also known as O'Marra

A thug and enforcer for the criminal factions in Personville.

Al Kennedy

minor

Also known as Al

A minor criminal or associate of the underworld figures.

Big Nick

minor

Also known as Nick, The burly Nick

A burly gangster and associate of Whisper's crew.

Mr. Dritton

minor

Also known as Dritton

A lawyer or businessman briefly encountered by the narrator.

Shepp

minor

Also known as Detectives Shepp

A detective working for the police or Willsson interests.

Tommy Robins

minor

A minor character, possibly a criminal or informant.

Kid McLeod

minor

Also known as McLeod

A young gunman or hoodlum in the city's gangs.

Stanley Lewis

minor

Also known as Lew, Stanley, Lewis

A minor figure, possibly a lawyer or businessman.

Polly De Voto

minor

A woman briefly mentioned, possibly a singer or entertainer.

Yakima Shorty

minor

A minor gangster or criminal from out of town.

Blackie Whalen

minor

Also known as Blackie

A thug and enforcer for the criminal underworld.