Character guide

Sir Clinton Driffield

major

Also known as Clinton, Driffield, Sir Clinton

A Chief Constable who'd rather follow a devious clue than a straight one, he reads crimes the way other men read chessboards — several moves ahead.

Dr. Trevor Markfield

major

Also known as Trevor, Markfield, Dr. Markfield

Markfield moves easily between the laboratory, the Institute, and the Silverdales' social orbit, which makes him useful to the investigation and hard to read. He is caustic about marriage and women, and his reluctance to answer questions frankly puts Flamborough on edge. His scientific expertise and his private knowledge of the Silverdale household make him a pivot the police cannot afford to alienate.

Inspector Flamborough

supporting

Also known as Flamborough

Flamborough is the plodding, skeptical counterweight to Sir Clinton's leaps of intuition, and he resents being dragged up the Lizardbridge Road on what looks like a wild goose chase. He is thorough with facts, wary of theories, and quietly stung when his superior's hunches pan out. His dogged legwork — postmen, telegrams, rubber tubing — supplies the case with the small solid details that eventually matter.

Dr. Ringwood

supporting

Also known as The Dying Man Dr. Ringwood, Ringwood

Ringwood is the physician Sir Clinton recruits for the drive out to the bungalow, a practical man who admits he saw nothing of the house the night before because the fog hid everything. He listens to Markfield's gossip about the Silverdales with visible boredom, yet his offhand questions about the Institute draw out useful information. He matters because his route through the foggy night — and his presence at the bungalow — ties the medical and investigative threads together.

Silverdale

supporting

Also known as Dr. Silverdale

Silverdale is an alkaloid specialist at the Institute, respected in his field but privately miserable in a marriage where husband and wife have agreed to take separate roads. He has turned toward Avice Deepcar while Yvonne parades young Hassendean about town, and the scandal gives him motive for a divorce he probably cannot get. His professional expertise in the very poisons under investigation makes him both a resource and a suspect as the case unfolds.

Hassendean

supporting

Also known as Young Hassendean, Mrs. Silverdale, Hassendean Mrs. Silverdale

Hassendean is the younger man Yvonne Silverdale escorts everywhere, advertising a conquest that Markfield suspects is mostly her sport. He cuts a callow figure — a live-your-own-life type with, in Markfield's scornful phrase, about as much backbone as a filleted sole. His conspicuous place at Yvonne's side feeds the Silverdale scandal and gives the police an obvious thread to pull when they begin asking who was close to the dead woman.

Whalley

supporting

Also known as Mr. Whalley, Peter Whalley, the late Mr. Whalley

Whalley is the unseen watcher whose careful, mercenary observations supply the investigation with its most damning testimony. He trails a man and a woman to a bungalow, notes the car's number for future leverage, and peers through a carelessly drawn curtain at exactly the wrong moment. His limited experience leads him to misread what he sees, and that fatal misjudgment makes his statement both indispensable and dangerously unreliable to the men trying to reconstruct the night.

Yvonne Silverdale

supporting

Also known as Yvonne, Mrs. Silverdale, Yvonne Silverdale, Mrs. Yvonne Silverdale

Yvonne is trapped between a husband she no longer wants and a lover, Markfield, with whom she has conducted a careful, exhausting affair for three years. A £12,000 legacy briefly seemed to offer them an escape through divorce, but her entanglement with the volatile Hassendean dragged her into something far darker. Her drugged, unresponsive body at the bungalow becomes the still center around which the case's earliest suspicions and jealousies revolve.

Avice Deepcar

minor

Also known as Miss Deepcar, Miss Avice Deepcar, Avice, Miss Avice

A young woman connected to the Silverdale household.

Miss Hailsham

minor

Also known as Hailsham

A woman whose testimony provides important clues.

Mr. Renard

minor

Also known as Renard

A mysterious figure with possible ties to the crimes.

Justice

minor

Also known as Mr. Justice

A legal figure involved in the later stages of the investigation.

Ronald Hassendean

minor

Also known as young Hassendean, Mr. Ronald, Mr. Hassendean, old Hassendean, Ronald

A member of the Hassendean family with a role in the plot.

Spratton

minor

Also known as Mr. Spratton

A minor character who appears in connection with the investigation.

The Chief Constable

minor

The senior police officer overseeing the investigation.

Yvonne Renard

minor

Also known as Yvonne, Renard

A woman possibly related to Mr. Renard and the Silverdales.

Marple

minor

Also known as Mrs. Marple, This Mrs. Marple

A local woman who provides incidental information.

Norma Hailsham

minor

A relative of Miss Hailsham, briefly mentioned in the case.

Shenstone

minor

A person of interest in the background of the case.

Detective-Sergeant Yarrow

minor

Also known as Yarrow

A police sergeant assisting Inspector Flamborough.

Octave Renard

minor

Also known as Renard

A relative of Mr. Renard, mentioned in the narrative.

Miss Hassendean

minor

A female member of the Hassendean family.

Peeping Tom

minor

Also known as Tom

A local character known for spying, providing a lead.

Dr. Carew

minor

Also known as old Carew, Carew

An elderly doctor with knowledge of the families involved.

Ina

minor

Also known as Ina upstairs

A servant in the Silverdale household.

Gilling

minor

A minor character who appears in the later chapters.

Detective-Sergeant Fossaway

minor

Also known as Fossaway

Another police sergeant working on the case.

Heatherfield

minor

A person associated with the crime at Heatherfield.

Stella

minor

A woman briefly mentioned in the narrative.

Miss Morcott

minor

A minor character who provides a statement.

Ryder

minor

A name mentioned in passing during the investigation.

Gulliver

minor

A minor character referenced in the case notes.