Character guide

Hercule Poirot

major

Also known as Monsieur Poirot, old Poirot, Mr. Poirot, Poirot

A retired Belgian detective with egg-shaped head and impeccable moustaches, quietly untangling the poisoner's knot at Styles while everyone else chases the obvious suspect.

John Cavendish

major

Also known as Mr. Cavendish, Cavendish, Mr. John Cavendish, Monsieur John

The elder son of Styles Court, a genial country squire whose easy charm masks mounting debts and a marriage straining under his mother's purse strings.

Emily Inglethorp

major

Also known as Mrs. Inglethorp, old Mrs. Inglethorp, Emily, Aunt Emily, Poor Emily

The autocratic mistress of Styles Court, whose late remarriage to a man half her age has scandalized her stepchildren and unsettled every expectation of inheritance.

Alfred Inglethorp

major

Also known as Mr. Inglethorp, Alfred, Mr. Alfred Inglethorp

Emily's much younger husband, a bearded, spectacle-wearing outsider whose evasions and mysterious absences make him the household's favorite suspect.

Mary Cavendish

major

Also known as Cavendish

John's beautiful, self-possessed wife, whose cool composure and unexplained movements on the night of the death keep drawing Hastings's suspicious eye.

Evelyn Howard

supporting

Also known as Miss Howard, Evie, Evelyn

Mrs. Inglethorp's blunt, devoted companion, whose abrupt departure from Styles just before the murder leaves behind more questions than anyone expected.

Cynthia Murdoch

supporting

Also known as Cynthia, Mademoiselle Cynthia, little Cynthia, Miss Cynthia, Miss Murdoch

Cynthia Murdoch is the orphaned daughter of an old friend of Mrs. Inglethorp's, kept at Styles as a kind of cheerful dependent and put to work in the village hospital dispensary. She is bright, unguarded, and perpetually short of sleep, which makes her both a sympathetic presence and a convenient witness to the household's comings and goings. When the dispensing of medicines becomes central to the case, her innocent proximity to the powders and bottles turns her into one of the quiet puzzles Poirot must work through.

Lawrence Cavendish

supporting

Also known as Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence Cavendish, Monsieur Lawrence

Lawrence Cavendish gave up medicine for verse and lives at Styles on his stepmother's charity, overshadowed by his more robust brother John. He is sensitive, moody, and visibly strained by the household's new arrangements, especially the arrival of Alfred Inglethorp. His medical training and his nervous temperament both make him an obvious early suspect, and his fumbling, evasive manner under questioning keeps the reader guessing about what he is hiding.

Dorcas

supporting

Also known as the brave Dorcas, Mademoiselle Dorcas, Dear old Dorcas, The good Dorcas

Dorcas has served the Cavendish household for years and knows its rhythms, feuds, and secrets better than anyone alive. She is loyal to her mistress but not blind, and her careful recollections of locked doors, overheard quarrels, and the strange behavior of cocoa cups give Poirot the domestic detail he needs. When the official investigation stalls, it is often Dorcas's plain testimony that quietly redirects the case.

Dr. Bauerstein

supporting

Also known as Bauerstein, IX Dr. Bauerstein

Dr. Bauerstein is a foreign specialist staying in the neighborhood, consulted by the family and whispered about by the village for his eccentric hours and his apparent closeness to Mrs. Cavendish. His professional knowledge of strychnine and other poisons is exactly what the case requires, yet his evasions about his own movements keep Hastings bristling and Poirot watchful. He hovers at the edge of the investigation as a man whose science could solve the crime — or conceal it.

Inspector Japp

supporting

Also known as Detective - Inspector Japp, Japp

Inspector Japp arrives at Styles with a warrant in his pocket and a tidy theory that Alfred Inglethorp did it, and he is not pleased to be told the case is anything but clear. He is a working policeman under pressure from above, caught between official procedure and his grudging respect for Poirot's methods. His willingness to hold his fire — against his own superintendent's skepticism — becomes the hinge on which the investigation's direction turns.

Arthur Hastings

major

Also known as Hastings, Mr. Hastings

Hastings narrates the affair from the inside, invited to Styles by John Cavendish just in time to witness the household's tensions and the poisoning that follows. He is warm, impulsive, and romantically inclined — especially toward Cynthia Murdoch — and his instincts about people are almost always confidently mistaken. His function is not to solve the crime but to misread it alongside us, which is precisely why Poirot's cool corrections land so satisfyingly.

Sir Ernest Heavywether

supporting

Also known as Heavywether, Sir Ernest, Ernest

Sir Ernest Heavywether belongs to the rarefied London legal world that the Styles case suddenly draws into a quiet Essex village, and his reputation precedes him into the courtroom. His cross-examinations are legendary for their surgical patience, a quality that makes him both a formidable defender and an unsettling presence for anyone convinced of his client's guilt. For Poirot, watching Heavywether at work is less a spectacle than a warning: the truth will have to survive not just a crime, but a performance.

Annie

minor

A maid at Styles Court who provides key testimony.

Mr. Wells

minor

Also known as Wells

The family solicitor who reads Mrs. Inglethorp's will.

Dr. Wilkins

minor

Also known as Wilkins, Little Wilkins

The local doctor who attends to Mrs. Inglethorp.

Manning

minor

A police constable involved in the investigation.

Superintendent Summerhaye

minor

Also known as Summerhaye

A police superintendent assisting with the case.

Mr. Mace

minor

Also known as the wretched Mr. Mace, Mace

The local chemist who dispensed poison.

Mr. Philips

minor

A clerk from the solicitors' office.

Mrs. Raikes

minor

Also known as Raikes

A local woman with a questionable reputation.

Elizabeth Wells

minor

A witness who saw something suspicious on the night of the murder.

Lady Tadminster

minor

Also known as Tadminster

A local aristocrat mentioned in passing.

William Earl

minor

Also known as young William, William

A young man who works at the local stables.