# The Man Who Knew — Character guide

> Key figures in The Man Who Knew by Edgar Wallace.

- [Frank Merrill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/frank_merrill.md): Frank moves through the novel as the man May half-accepts and half-resists, a suitor whose warnings about Jasper Cole carry an almost prophetic weight. His jealousy is complicated by genuine affection for the rival he di
- [John Minute](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/john_minute.md): Minute is the self-made magnate whose wealth and coarseness sit oddly together, a man who took a quiet Eastbourne place to escape London and found strangers prying at every gate. His visit to the commissioner lays out a 
- [Jasper Cole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/jasper_cole.md): Cole holds an extraordinary position in John Minute's household, exercising vetoes and shaping decisions with a gentle firmness no one quite resists. Frank Merrill calls him his worst enemy while admitting his fascinatio
- [The Girl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/the_girl.md): May is the young woman at the hinge of the novel's romantic and investigative tensions, adopted niece to John Minute and practically housekeeper at Weald Lodge since sixteen. She wears Frank's ring without being sure she
- [May Nuttall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/may_nuttall.md): May arrives in England radiant and infatuated, met at Charing Cross by a despairing Saul Arthur Mann who knows his warnings will not reach her. She is cordial even to Frank, whom she gently refuses to suspect, and her ha
- [Rex Holland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/rex_holland.md): Holland is a man of sententious maxims and meticulous precautions, converting a country cottage into a bijou palace full of labor-saving devices. His rules for his Australian chauffeur — no friends, no questions, no vent
- [Constable Wiseman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/constable_wiseman.md): Wiseman holds court at his own supper table, cataloguing the thieves he has caught and the summonses he has served, convinced Eastbourne stays orderly mainly through his tireless effort. He wants no promotion, he insists
- [Mr. Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/mr_crawley.md): Crawley moves through the margins of the case as a man with something to hide, having conveyed Jasper Cole's dying mother to the workhouse infirmary and raised Marguerite as his own child without ever revealing her true 
- [Mr. Brandon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/mr_brandon.md): A lawyer or associate who appears in connection with the legal proceedings.
- [Detective Inspector Nash](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/detective_inspector_nash.md): Nash appears in the company of Sir George Fuller, weighing the threats against John Minute and concluding that nothing more remarkable than ordinary fortune-hunting is at work. Rather than chase shadows himself, he endor
- [Sir George Fuller](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_man_who_knew_se/characters/sir_george_fuller.md): A gentleman of influence who appears in social or legal contexts.

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