# Dr. Louis Letheny — The Patient in Room 18 character guide

> Dr. Louis Letheny in The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Dr. Letheny, Louis, Poor Louis

**First appearance:** 0001-the-patient-in-room-18

## Snapshot

The doctor whose disappearance from St. Ann's sets the whole machinery of suspicion and grief in motion before the story has properly begun.

## Who they are

Dr. Letheny is felt everywhere in the early chapters — in the patients who were under his care, in the cottage where his daughter waits, in the car Jim Gainsay borrowed, and in the corridor where Miss Keate learns the news. His absence is the wound around which the other characters organize themselves, and the question of what happened to him shadows every conversation about the radium, the missing key, and the figure who moved through the south wing at midnight. He never appears on the page, yet his fate is the engine of the book.

## In the story

### [I: An Unpleasant Dinner Party](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_patient_in_room_18_se/chapters/i-an-unpleasant-dinner-party)

Head doctor; observes everything through cigarette smoke; plays a piano piece that intensifies the oppressive mood.

### [II: In Room 18](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_patient_in_room_18_se/chapters/ii-in-room-18)

Visits Mr. Jackson at 12:30 AM, then disappears; later cannot be found.

### [XV: Corole Is Moved to Candour](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_patient_in_room_18_se/chapters/xv-corole-is-moved-to-candour)

Mentioned as having met Maida in the orchard; his dinner jacket pocket contained Maida's cuff link.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_patient_in_room_18_se/characters/dr_louis_letheny
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_patient_in_room_18_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_patient_in_room_18_se/characters