# The Three Hostages — Character guide

> Key figures in The Three Hostages by John Buchan.

- [Richard Hannay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/richard_hannay.md): A retired intelligence officer anchored in country contentment at Fosse Manor, Hannay is pulled back into the game when a desperate father begs him to find a missing girl.
- [Dominick Medina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/dominick_medina.md): Charismatic, cultivated, and unnervingly self-possessed, Medina draws Hannay into a contest of wits where charm itself may be the most dangerous weapon in play.
- [Sandy Arbuthnot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/sandy_arbuthnot.md): A master of disguise and Eastern tongues, Sandy Arbuthnot is Hannay's oldest friend — and the one man capable of moving unseen through the enemy's world.
- [Mary Hannay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/mary_hannay.md): Hannay's wife, whose clear-eyed courage and refusal to let him surrender steady him when the search for three hostages threatens to break his nerve.
- [Archie Roylance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/archie_roylance.md): A young baronet and pilot with more cheer than caution, Archie Roylance throws his aeroplane and his loyalty behind Hannay's hunt.
- [Tom Greenslade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/tom_greenslade.md): Hannay's doctor and neighbour, whose half-remembered scraps of a dream — a blind spinner, a saeter, a sower — set the whole pursuit in motion.
- [Macgillivray](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/macgillivray.md): Macgillivray is the senior Yard man Hannay trusts with the mechanics of a coordinated strike, even as Hannay withholds the Medina thread from him. Their partnership runs on professional respect and mutual exasperation: M
- [Dr. Newhover](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/dr_newhover.md): Dr. Newhover occupies an ordinary Harley Street consulting room, all fumed oak and Royal Academy engravings, yet something in his domineering intimacy puts Hannay instantly on guard. He probes, shampoos, and catechises w
- [Madame Breda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/madame_breda.md): Madame Breda presides over a strange, fire-lit room hidden behind an ordinary house, dressed as if she has been dining out, speaking to an old lady in a foreign tongue. She interrogates the shabby district-visitor Agnes 
- [Julius Victor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/julius_victor.md): Julius Victor is a man who knows how to handle men: he refuses to press, refuses to offer a cheque, and leaves Hannay ashamed and unsettled instead. His daughter Adela is held as a hostage in a plot he insists is not ord
- [Peter John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/peter_john.md): Peter John is the reason Mary wakes in terror and slips up to the night-nursery to hug him, and the reason Hannay's double life in London feels like a betrayal of the ordinary. He is not a player in the plot, but he is t
- [David Warcliff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/david_warcliff.md): David Warcliff is held somewhere in Medina's black underworld, one of three prisoners whose memories are being quietly erased. Hannay, himself a father, finds his thoughts returning to the little boy again and again, and
- [Lavater](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/lavater.md): A Swiss criminal and associate of Medina.
- [Adela Victor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/adela_victor.md): Julius Victor's daughter, a spirited young woman.
- [Elsie Outhwaite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/elsie_outhwaite.md): A young woman who becomes a hostage.
- [Kennedy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/kennedy.md): A police inspector assisting Macgillivray.
- [Sir Walter Bullivant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/bullivant.md): A senior intelligence official and Hannay's former chief.
- [Peter Bojer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/peter_bojer.md): A Norwegian sailor and friend of Hannay.
- [Tom Machin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/tom_machin.md): A local man who helps Hannay in the Highlands.
- [Old Angus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/old_angus.md): A Scottish servant at Fosse Manor.
- [Fosse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/fosse.md): The name of Archie Roylance's estate, sometimes personified.
- [June Mercot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/june_mercot.md): Lord Mercot's daughter, a young woman.
- [Lord Mercot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/lord_mercot.md): A friend of Hannay, a member of the Thursday Club.
- [Odell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/odell.md): A criminal associate of Medina.
- [Herr Gaudian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/herr_gaudian.md): A German engineer who becomes an ally.
- [The Marquis de la Tour du Pin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/the_marquis_de_la_tour_du_pin.md): A French nobleman and former liaison officer, now a friend.
- [Dick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters/dick.md): A friend of Hannay, possibly a nickname for Richard Hannay.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_three_hostages_se/characters