# Chief Inspector Heat — The Secret Agent character guide

> Chief Inspector Heat in The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Inspector Heat, Heat

**First appearance:** 0004-ii

## Snapshot

An old police hand who knows his criminals personally and prefers to keep his informants private, which makes him formidable and slightly compromised.

## Who they are

Heat has spent decades building a quiet network of informers and a settled conviction about how the revolutionary underworld should be policed, and he resents interference from above. He regards Verloc as his own property, a tool to be used rather than surrendered to the department as a whole, and his professional pride is bound up with that arrangement. When the Greenwich affair forces him to explain himself to a superior who sees the case differently, Heat's certainty becomes the story's sharpest instrument for exposing how the machinery of order actually works.

## Relationships

### [Mr. Verloc](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/mr_verloc)

_rivalry_

Heat pursues Verloc as a suspect in the bombing plot, embodying the conflict between law enforcement and anarchism.

### [Sir Ethelred](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/sir_ethelred)

_professional_

Heat reports to Sir Ethelred, his superior in the police hierarchy, with deference and bureaucratic tension.

### [Comrade Ossipon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/comrade_ossipon)

_rivalry_

Heat suspects Ossipon of anarchist involvement and monitors him as a potential threat.

### [Michaelis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/michaelis)

_rivalry_

Heat views Michaelis as a dangerous anarchist and interrogates him regarding the bombing.

### [The Perfect Anarchist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/the_perfect_anarchist)

_rivalry_

Heat pursues the elusive Perfect Anarchist as a key figure in the bombing conspiracy.

### [Mr. Verloc](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/mr_verloc)

_rivalry_

Heat pursues Verloc as a suspect in the bombing plot, embodying the conflict between law enforcement and anarchism.

### [Sir Ethelred](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/sir_ethelred)

_professional_

Heat reports to Sir Ethelred, his superior in the police hierarchy, with deference and bureaucratic tension.

### [Mr. Verloc](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/mr_verloc)

_rivalry_

Heat pursues Verloc as a suspect in the bombing plot, embodying the conflict between law enforcement and anarchism.

### [Comrade Ossipon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/comrade_ossipon)

_rivalry_

Heat suspects Ossipon of anarchist involvement and monitors him as a potential threat.

### [Michaelis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/michaelis)

_rivalry_

Heat views Michaelis as a dangerous anarchist and interrogates him regarding the bombing.

### [The Perfect Anarchist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/the_perfect_anarchist)

_rivalry_

Heat pursues the elusive Perfect Anarchist as a key figure in the bombing conspiracy.

### [Sir Ethelred](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/sir_ethelred)

_professional_

Heat reports to Sir Ethelred, his superior in the police hierarchy, with deference and bureaucratic tension.

## In the story

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

Mentioned by the Professor as a figure whose violent suppression of anarchists would help their cause.

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

Dismisses anarchism as foolishness and lunacy, preferring the clear rules of thief-catching. Reports to the Assistant Commissioner and later confronts the Professor in a tense alley.

### [Chapter VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/chapters/vi)

Connects Michaelis to the bombing and defends his secrecy; is dismissed by the Assistant Commissioner for the night.

### [Chapter VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/chapters/vii)

Mentioned as an old departmental hand who has taken the piece of overcoat evidence; the Assistant Commissioner plans to bypass him.

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

Quoted by the Assistant Commissioner regarding the police's knowledge of anarchists.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters/chief_inspector_heat
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_secret_agent_se/characters