# Lew Pheeney — The Door with Seven Locks character guide

> Lew Pheeney in The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Lew, Pheeney, Poor Lew, Mr. Pheeney

**First appearance:** 0004-iii

## Snapshot

A criminal who was once dragged to the seven-locked door under threat of death, Lew Pheeney is the frightened thread connecting the tomb of Sir Hugh Selford to the living plot.

## Who they are

Pheeney's coerced work at the stone door — seven circular bosses, a carved skeleton on each pillar, a curse on whoever mocks — surfaces in Dick Martin's mind the moment he finally sees the thing for himself. Whatever Pheeney did there, he did it in terror, and the memory of that fear shadows the whole approach to the Selford vault. He matters because he proves the door has already been tampered with by men willing to kill, turning an ancestral curiosity into an active conspiracy.

## Relationships

### [Dick Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/characters/dick_martin)

_professional_

Dick Martin interacts with Lew Pheeney as part of his detective work, likely as an informant or suspect.

### [Dick Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/characters/dick_martin)

_professional_

Dick Martin interacts with Lew Pheeney as part of his detective work, likely as an informant or suspect.

### [Dick Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/characters/dick_martin)

_professional_

Dick Martin interacts with Lew Pheeney as part of his detective work, likely as an informant or suspect.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/i)

A professional burglar arrested by Martin for the Helborough bank robbery, but he provides an alibi and reveals he was paid for a secret lock-picking job.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/iii)

Nervously approaches Dick Martin, confessing he was hired to open a dead man's tomb and that he is being trailed.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/iv)

Visits Dick in fear, claiming he was chased; later found dead in Dick's bureau.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/v)

Found dead in Dick's flat; cause of death is strangulation or a broken neck.

### [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/x)

Mentioned by Stalletti as having died, possibly by suicide, in connection with the conspiracy.

### [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/xii)

Mentioned in Dick's thoughts as the man who died for seeing too much, linked to grave robbing.

### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/xiii)

Mentioned as the victim whose murder Dick believes was committed by the same assailant who attacked him.

### [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/chapters/xv)

Mentioned as having failed to pick the locks on the door with seven locks, and as a real-world criminal who suffered agony while working on the door.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/characters/lew_pheeney
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_door_with_seven_locks_se/characters