# The Big Bow Mystery — Character guide

> Key figures in The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill.

- [Denzil Cantercot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/denzil_cantercot.md): Cantercot scrapes a living by his pen while nursing grander literary ambitions, and his threadbare pride makes him both pitiable and unpredictable. He moves between the labor circles around Arthur Constant and the darker
- [George Grodman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/grodman.md): Grodman has left the force but not the game, and his rivalry with the younger detective Wimp gives the investigation a second, unofficial engine. He watches the case with a mocking half-smile, almost kindly toward suspec
- [Tom Mortlake](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/tom_mortlake.md): Mortlake commands a crowd with the ease of a born orator, and his friendship with the murdered Arthur Constant has made him the natural heir to Bow's working-class hopes. But his ambitions, his love for Jessie Dymond, an
- [Edward Wimp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/edward_wimp.md): Wimp is the professional on the case, dogged and certain of his methods, and he treats the investigation as both duty and contest. His rivalry with Grodman sharpens every clue into a point of pride, and his instinct for 
- [Mrs. Drabdump](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/mrs_drabdump.md): Mrs. Drabdump has buried a husband and two children and expects the worst as a matter of habit, so the fog and the gas bill and the stopped clock all fit her view of things. She rents rooms to Arthur Constant and knows t
- [Peter Crowl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/peter_crowl.md): Crowl belongs to the same cramped, gossipy world of Glover Street, where everyone knows everyone's business and nobody forgets a slight. His volatile temper makes him useful to the police and dangerous to himself, since 
- [Arthur Constant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/arthur_constant.md): Arthur Constant, B.A., occupies the upstairs rooms at 11 Glover Street, where his landlady cannot reconcile his gentleman's hands with his appetite for an artisan's life. He is a light sleeper and a saintly one, so eager
- [Jessie Dymond](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/jessie_dymond.md): Jessie Dymond belongs to the world of Tom Mortlake, the compositor turned labor apostle whose fame hangs over the Bow morning like the fog itself. Her attachment to him places her at the soft center of a hard public life
- [Mr. Gladstone](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/mr_gladstone.md): A historical figure mentioned in passing, not a direct character.
- [Lucy Brent](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/lucy_brent.md): A young woman acquainted with the characters, briefly mentioned.
- [Sandy Sanderson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_bow_mystery_se/characters/sandy_sanderson.md): A minor character, possibly a journalist or acquaintance.

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