Character guide

Mr. Mallalieu

major

Also known as Mallalieu, Anthony Mallalieu

Mallalieu is a big, prosperous figure accustomed to deference, now wholly dependent on his sly keeper Chris Pett for news of the town and of himself. His temper flares at confinement, and his one raw nerve is the word murder—especially when Pett reveals that Cotherstone's evidence turned the inquest against him. His mounting fury and helplessness set the early mystery's central question: what did these two partners do, and who will break first?

Mr. Brereton

major

Also known as Brereton, Mr. Gifford Brereton

Brereton arrives as an outsider with legal instincts and a barrister's habit of watching faces, and he is quickly pulled from the courtroom into a private meeting of solicitors and detectives. Curious to the point of eagerness, he carries Avice Harborough to the Duke's Head without knowing what awaits. His methodical mind makes him the reader's natural guide through the town's secrets and the case's shifting ground.

Lettie Cotherstone

major

Also known as Lettie, Cotherstone

Lettie is the centre of her father's anxious love and the reason his dread of exposure cuts so deep; she is engaged to Windle Bent, a man resolved on a career. Cheerful and practical, she telephones her father to remind him of supper guests while he sits paralysed by fear. Her future is the stake that makes Cotherstone's secret dangerous rather than merely sordid.

Mr. Cotherstone

major

Also known as Cotherstone, Milford Cotherstone

Cotherstone is one half of a long partnership with Mallalieu, a builder proud of his stone house and his standing, yet haunted by something Kitely knew. When the crowd brands him a liar and a self-saver, he answers with champagne and bravado, but at home he dreads even a supper guest. His dread of exposure—chiefly for Lettie's sake—drives the novel's central pressure.

Miss Pett

supporting

Also known as Pett

Miss Pett belongs to the small, watchful circle around Kitely's estate, and Brereton's remark that she 'won't be exactly surprised' by the will suggests she has her own reading of the dead man. She and her nephew Christopher are the only people Kitely acknowledged as friends, which places her at the edge of everything the police want to know. Her silence and shrewdness make her a quiet but loaded presence in the investigation.

Bert Stoner

supporting

Also known as Stoner, young Stoner, Herbert Stoner

Stoner sits drinking whisky in company when old Mr. Pursey mentions he once knew the murdered Kitely, and Stoner's excitement is barely contained as he draws out the tale of Mallows and Chidforth, two trusted young workmen who embezzled two thousand pounds and vanished after prison. His mind leaps instantly to a half-sheet of foolscap, and he gulps his drink to steady himself. His eager listening is the hinge that links the present murder to a buried crime.

Mr. Kitely

supporting

Also known as Kitely, old Kitely

A retired man of secrets whose silence Cotherstone would pay dearly for, and whose tongue proves deadlier than any ledger.

Christopher Pett

supporting

Also known as Mr. Pett, Christopher, Chris Pett

A small, sly solicitor with long white fingers and a steel-trap client, he parcels out Kitely's estate and his own careful evasions with equal neatness.

John Harborough

supporting

Also known as Harborough, Jack Harborough

A poacher and enigma whom Highmarket cannot quite account for, charged with a murder that anonymous money insists he did not commit.

Avice Harborough

supporting

Also known as Avice, Miss Avice

A well-educated, watchful daughter who has grown up around her father's silences and now must hold her nerve while the town decides what he is.

Mr. Bent

supporting

Also known as Bent, young Bent, Windle Bent

A young solicitor with family pride and political ambitions, drawn into a murder case that keeps threatening to touch his own respectable name.

Mr. Carfax

supporting

Also known as Carfax

A well-travelled solicitor who arrives with an alibi, a hidden heir, and the calm of a man who has already read the last page.

Mrs. Hamthwaite

minor

Also known as old Mrs. Hamthwaite

An elderly woman who provides local gossip.

David Myler

minor

Also known as Myler, Dave

A servant or employee of the Mallalieu family.

Tallington Brereton

supporting

Also known as Tallington, Mr. Tallington

Brereton moves through the case as its legal intelligence, the man who must know every detail of Mallows and Chidforth's crime and be able to summarize it coldly. What grips him is not the guilt but the gap: two thousand pounds vanished, two culprits stolid and defiant, and no one ever learned where the money went. That unresolved question turns a humdrum report into a thread he cannot let go, and it quietly shapes how he reads everyone who crosses the case afterward.

Mr. Garthwaite

minor

Also known as Garthwaite

A local businessman and associate of Cotherstone.

Mr. Wraythwaite

supporting

Also known as Wraythwaite, Wraye

Wraythwaite is a fine fellow on the verge of doing great things for Harborough and his daughter, which is precisely why the past rattling the present terrifies him. His instinct is to rush to Highmarket and tell everything, but Carfax counsels patience until his own affair is finished, and he compromises by sending money he cannot quite explain. His private inquiries into Miss Pett's antecedents open the seam the whole case will run along, making him the quiet hinge between old secrets and present danger.

The Doctor

minor

Also known as Dr. Rockcliffe

The local physician who examines the victim.

Lawyer Tallington

minor

Also known as Tallington

A solicitor involved in the legal proceedings.

Mr. Pursey

minor

Also known as old Pursey

An old man who provides information to the police.

Councillor Northrop

minor

Also known as Northrop

A town councillor with a role in local politics.

Major Stilman

minor

Also known as Stilman

A military man who appears in the story.

Mr. Mayor

minor

The mayor of the town, involved in official matters.

Mr. Leykin

minor

Also known as Leykin

A man who assists in the investigation.

Miss Harborough

minor

A relative of John Harborough.

Popsie

minor

A nickname for a minor character.

Mr. Stobb

minor

Also known as Stobb, Messrs. Stobb

A tradesman or businessman in the town.

Mrs. Northrop

minor

Wife of Councillor Northrop.

John Mallows

minor

Also known as Mallows

A partner in the firm Mallows & Chidforth.

Mark Chidforth

minor

Also known as Chidforth

A partner in the firm Mallows & Chidforth.

Mr. Popham

minor

Also known as Popham

A minor official or acquaintance.

Postick

minor

A servant or messenger.

Mrs. Battley

minor

A woman who appears briefly in the narrative.

Young Mrs. Bent

minor

Also known as Mrs. Bent

The wife of young Mr. Bent.