Character guide

Anne Beddingfeld

major

Also known as Anne, Beddingfeld, Miss Anne, Miss Beddingfeld

An impoverished dreamer who trades her dull village life for a dead man's cryptic paper and a one-way ticket into a diamond conspiracy.

Sir Eustace Pedler

major

Also known as Sir Eustace, Pedler, Eustace, Eustace Pedler

A pompous, work-loathing MP whose empty Marlow house becomes a murder scene and whose African errand turns quietly treacherous.

Colonel Race

major

Also known as The Colonel, Colonel Race, Race

A big-game hunter with a secret-service reputation who watches the shipboard cast too carefully for any of it to be chance.

Harry Rayburn

major

Also known as Henry, Rayburn, Harry, Mr. Rayburn

Sir Eustace's newest secretary, hired on the strength of a letter that turns out to be blank, and gone before anyone can ask.

Suzanne Blair

supporting

Also known as Suzanne, Clever Suzanne

A charming, married, irrepressibly nosy shipboard companion who turns Anne's wild hunches into actual detective work.

Guy Pagett

supporting

Also known as Pagett, Mr. Pagett, poor Mr. Pagett

Sir Eustace's tireless, joyless secretary, whose fourteenth-century-poisoner face and gloomy instincts keep proving uncomfortably right.

Mrs. Clarence Blair

supporting

Also known as the Hon. Mrs. Clarence Blair, Mrs. Blair, Clarence

Mrs. Blair is one of the smartest women of the day, a paper-famous society figure who commands the ship's attention and coolly deflects the people angling to scrape acquaintance with her. She attaches herself to the strong, silent Colonel Race, then turns her restless kindness on the seasick stranger in the next chair, bullying her toward fresh air and a better cabin. Her cheerful, faintly comic meddling gives Anne her first taste of shipboard society and an early ally with useful connections.

Nadina

supporting

Also known as Madame Nadina, Madame

Nadina is the toast of Paris, bowing under applause in a swirl of blue and orange draperies, yet she tells her visitor plainly that her position is not what it was and that the suspicions of the war years have never died down. She and Count Sergius, compatriots who share not a word of the language, trade coded talk of a chief who plans to retire like any businessman. Her glamour and her unease make her the story's most seductive loose end, a woman whose secrets reach back into the prologue's violence.

L. B. Carton

supporting

Also known as Carton, Mr. Carton, the devil Carton

Carton is a physical coward who talks freely once a revolver is produced, admitting he helped engineer the robbery and that Anita Grünberg was his wife before she drifted into a bad lot and the orbit of the Colonel. He advises Anita which stones to keep back as insurance, then bolts for England aboard the Kilmorden Castle when he fears the game is up. His panic and his half-truths are the thread that pulls the pursuer onto the same boat — and into the same danger.

Mr. Chichester

minor

Also known as Chichester, the Rev. Edward Chichester

A clergyman traveling on the ship who becomes entangled in the mystery.

Miss Pettigrew

minor

Also known as the unfortunate Miss Pettigrew, the correct Miss Pettigrew

A prim and proper spinster traveling to South Africa.

Mr. Flemming

minor

A passenger on the ship who dies under suspicious circumstances.

Lord Nasby

minor

Also known as Nasby

A newspaper proprietor who helps Anne with information.

Arthur Minks

minor

Also known as Minks

A shady character who appears under multiple aliases.

Augustus Milray

minor

Also known as Milray, Mr. Milray, old Milray

An elderly passenger on the ship with a connection to the case.

Detective Inspector Meadows

minor

Also known as Inspector Meadows

Scotland Yard detective investigating the tube station death.

Professor Beddingfeld

minor

Also known as the late Professor Beddingfeld

Anne's deceased father, an archaeologist whose work influences the plot.

Mrs. Flemming

minor

Widow of Mr. Flemming, traveling to South Africa.

Anita Grünberg

minor

Also known as Anita

A young woman traveling with her employer, later revealed to have a secret identity.

Sir Laurence Eardsley

minor

Also known as Sir Laurence, Eardsley, Sir Lawrence Eardsley

A wealthy diamond mine owner whose death sets the plot in motion.

Reeves

minor

Sir Eustace Pedler's loyal butler.

John Eardsley

minor

Also known as John, John Harold Eardsley, Young Eardsley

Son of Sir Laurence Eardsley, involved in the family's affairs.

Pamela

minor

A young woman Anne meets during her travels.

Caroline

minor

A maid in the Pedler household.

Jeanne

minor

A French maid working for a passenger on the ship.

Mrs. de Castina

minor

Also known as the unfortunate Mrs. de Castina

A passenger who dies during the voyage.

Miss Emery

minor

A nurse traveling on the ship.

Lord Loamsley

minor

Also known as Loamsley

A minor aristocrat mentioned in connection with the case.

General Smuts

minor

Also known as Smuts

Historical figure mentioned as a contact in South Africa.