Character guide

Bundle Brent

major

Also known as Lady Eileen Brent, Eileen, Eileen Brent, Miss Bundle, Bundle

Bundle moves through Chimneys and London with the ease of a daughter of the house, which lets her overhear, pry, and push where police cannot. When Jimmy Thesiger urges her and Loraine to stay clear of the Seven Dials business, her indignation is immediate and her mind already made up. Her appetite for risk and her inconvenient habit of succeeding make her the engine that drags the mystery forward.

Jimmy Thesiger

major

Also known as Thesiger, Mr. Thesiger, Mr. James Thesiger, Mr. Jimmy Thesiger

Jimmy arrives in the affair as a friend of the dead man and quickly becomes the group's strategist, deflecting Loraine's fears with jokes while nursing a wounded arm and a private plan. He warns the women to keep out of Seven Dials even as he maneuvers himself deeper in, cultivating Lady Coote because he suspects it may prove useful. His breezy confidence and his hidden calculations make him the reader's most ambiguous ally.

Loraine Wade

major

Also known as Miss Loraine, Loraine, Miss Wade, Wade, Miss Loraine Wade

Loraine is the small, alight-faced girl who opened her brother's letter by mistake and can still recall its list of names and dates. When Jimmy tries to shield her from the Seven Dials danger, she refuses flatly, invoking Gerry as the dearest and kindest brother any girl ever had. Her memory of that letter and her refusal to be sidelined make her both a witness and a participant in the early investigation.

Superintendent Battle

major

Also known as Battle, Superintendent, old Battle

Battle reconstructs the shooting at Chimneys with patient, unglamorous precision, reading footprints, bullets, and the dent where a thrown pistol struck the lawn. He listens to Bundle's account of her adventures with a facial woodenness that briefly cracks into genuine astonishment. His quiet suspicion of nearly everyone, including the secretary Pongo, gives the investigation its steady spine while the amateurs chase their theories.

Lord Caterham

supporting

Also known as Caterham, dear Caterham

Lord Caterham's instinct on hearing George Lomax has arrived is to claim gout, or death, and stay in bed. He chats amiably about his daughter's golf and her restlessness while George delivers solemn speeches about her brains and ambition that seem to describe a stranger. His comfortable bewilderment at the marriage plot and the murders alike provides the book's driest comedy and a fond counterweight to Bundle's energy.

Lady Coote

supporting

Also known as a tearful Lady Coote, old Coote, old steamroller Coote

Lady Coote sits in the garden working a weeping figure over an urn and warns Jimmy, with relish, about blood poisoning and lost arms. She remembers the white striped paper and the inglenook of the house she chose when Sir Oswald was plain Mr. Coote, and she fears the grand antique-filled places a firm will now design for them. Her unease about her husband's runaway success makes her a sympathetic, unexpectedly useful source for Jimmy's scheming.

Sir Oswald Coote

supporting

Also known as Sir Oswald, Oswald Coote, Oswald, Coote

A bulky, dominating industrialist whose crisp efficiency and convenient discoveries on the lawn make him the most useful man in the room — and the most suspicious.

George Lomax

supporting

Also known as George, Lomax, Mr. Lomax, Codders

A pompous Foreign Office Under Secretary known as 'Codders,' who quotes his own speeches and collects promising young men for his house parties.

Gerald Wade

supporting

Also known as Mr. Wade, Wade, Gerry Wade, Gerry, Gerald Wade, old Gerald

The amiable young Foreign Office idler whose death by chloral — after eight alarm clocks — turns a country-house prank into something far darker.

Bill Eversleigh

supporting

Also known as Bill, Mr. Eversleigh, Mr. Bill Eversleigh, Poor old Bill

Lomax's good-natured right-hand man, hopelessly smitten with Loraine Wade and hopelessly out of his depth in everything else.

Ronny Devereux

supporting

Also known as Ronny, Ronald Devereux, Mr. Ronald Devereux, Mr. Devereux

A charming, well-connected young man whose death at a shooting party is quietly arranged to look like a local lad's stray rifle.

Alfred

minor

Also known as Freddie Richards

A scared servant at Chimneys who knows more than he lets on.

Rupert Bateman

minor

Also known as Mr. Bateman, Bateman, the serious Mr. Bateman, the efficient Mr. Rupert Bateman

Efficient secretary to Sir Oswald Coote.

Terence O'Rourke

minor

Also known as Mr. O'Rourke, O'Rourke, Sir Stanley Digby, Sir Stanley

An Irish journalist and adventurer involved in the intrigue.

Tredwell

minor

Also known as Mr. Tredwell

The butler at Chimneys, a reliable source of information.

Mr. Mosgorovsky

minor

Also known as the sinister Mr. Mosgorovsky, Mosgorovsky, the black-bearded Mr. Mosgorovsky

A sinister foreigner with ties to the criminal underworld.

Countess Anna Radzky

minor

Also known as Countess, Anna, Countess Radzky, The Countess

A glamorous foreign countess with a mysterious past.

Lady Caterham

minor

Lord Caterham's wife, a minor presence in the household.

Mrs. Coker

minor

A local woman who provides information to the investigators.

Babe St. Maur

minor

Also known as Babe, Miss St. Maur

A fashionable young woman in the social circle.

Doctor Cassell

minor

The local doctor who examines the body.

Pongo

minor

Also known as Little Pongo, old Pongo, Fancy Pongo

A friend of the younger set, often involved in their schemes.

Socks Daventry

minor

Also known as Socks, Daventry

Another member of the social circle at Chimneys.

MacDonald

minor

A police inspector assisting Superintendent Battle.

Mrs. Stevens

minor

Also known as Stevens

The housekeeper at Chimneys.

Herr Eberhard

minor

Also known as Eberhard, the unattractive Herr Eberhard

A German scientist involved in the formula plot.

John Bauer

minor

Also known as Bauer

A foreign agent seeking the secret formula.

Mrs. Macatta

minor

A member of Parliament involved in the political side of events.

Leopold

minor

A young boy who assists Bundle in her investigations.

Henry

minor

Also known as Uncle Henry

An older relative of the Brent family.

Maria

minor

A maid at Chimneys.

Colonel Melrose

minor

Also known as Melrose

The local chief constable assisting the investigation.

Aunt Marcia

minor

Also known as Marcia

An elderly aunt of the Brent family.

Mr. Murgatroyd

minor

A lawyer involved in the affairs of the deceased.

Mrs. Howell

minor

Also known as Howelly

A local woman who provides lodging to some characters.

Lurcher

minor

A dog at Chimneys.

Dr. Cartwright

minor

A doctor consulted during the investigation.