# That Affair Next Door — Character guide

> Key figures in That Affair Next Door by Anna Katharine Green.

- [Amelia Butterworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/amelia_butterworth.md): Amelia Butterworth belongs to the comfortable, watchful class of unmarried women who see everything and are credited with feeling nothing — a reputation she quietly exploits. When a young woman dies in the Van Burnam man
- [Mr. Gryce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/mr_gryce.md): Mr. Gryce is the seasoned police presence in a case already crowded with Van Burnam secrets and a spinster who will not stay out of his way. He studies suspects before speaking to them, slips rings from his pocket to tes
- [Howard Van Burnam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/howard_van_burnam.md): Howard Van Burnam is a young man of respectable family whose testimony keeps contradicting itself at exactly the wrong moments. He admits returning to his father's house in the small hours, claims he never went in, and c
- [Franklin Van Burnam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/franklin_van_burnam.md): Franklin Van Burnam moves through the inquiry with the family's collective indifference, offering the authorities nothing they can use. Gryce confesses himself baffled: every passion in the case seems to ignite at the si
- [Miss Althorpe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/miss_althorpe.md): Miss Althorpe is the rich, gracious young woman whose charity brings a sick and nameless patient under her roof — and, unknowingly, under Amelia Butterworth's scrutiny. Preoccupied with her own approaching marriage, she 
- [Ruth Oliver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/ruth_oliver.md): Ruth Oliver arrives in the story as a nameless patient in a strange house, too ill to be questioned and too frightened to be undressed. She clutches her shoes because they hide her small fortune, recoils at any hand near
- [Lena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/lena.md): Lena is the young maid who accompanies Miss Butterworth on her unorthodox investigations, waiting in doorways and staring through panes with open alarm. Accustomed to obey even when her mistress seems half-mad, she suppl
- [Mrs. Van Burnam (Haddam)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/mrs_van_burnam_haddam.md): She arrives in the Van Burnam orbit as an outsider bride from Haddam, married to Howard against the family's evident wishes and known to few in New York society. Her death in the empty mansion forces the coroner to weigh
- [Randolph Stone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/randolph_stone.md): Randolph Stone moves easily among the Van Burnams as a well-known man of unquestionable integrity, yet he gives his evidence under visible compulsion and casts a look of regret at his friend Howard. His account of recogn
- [Caroline](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/caroline.md): A Van Burnam sister involved in family affairs.
- [Mrs. Boppert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/mrs_boppert.md): A neighbor who provides gossip and observations.
- [Isabella Van Burnam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/isabella_van_burnam.md): One of the Van Burnam daughters, querulous and opinionated.
- [Louise Van Burnam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/louise_van_burnam.md): Another Van Burnam daughter, quieter than her sisters.
- [Miss Ferguson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/miss_ferguson.md): A friend or acquaintance of Amelia Butterworth.
- [Bertha Desberger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/bertha_desberger.md): A woman who sheltered Ruth Oliver.
- [Olive Randolph](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/olive_randolph.md): A relative of John Randolph with a role in the mystery.
- [Coroner Dahl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/coroner_dahl.md): The coroner who examines the body of Mrs. Van Burnam.
- [Richard Clapp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/richard_clapp.md): A clerk who provides important testimony.
- [Mrs. Howard Van Burnam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/mrs_howard_van_burnam.md): Howard's wife, distinct from the Haddam Mrs. Van Burnam.
- [Altman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/altman.md): A store where a key purchase was made.
- [Mr. Pope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/mr_pope.md): A couple who provide an alibi or information.
- [Silas Van Burnam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/that_affair_next_door_se/characters/silas_van_burnam.md): The patriarch of the Van Burnam family.

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