Character guide

Richard Marwood

major

Also known as Richard, Poor Richard, Master Richard, Mr. Richard Marwood, Mr. Marwood, poor Mr. Marwood

Richard Marwood is the prodigal nephew whose uncle offers him one last chance at respectability: a clerk's berth in Gardenford and a fortune to follow. He is torn between genuine remorse and a fatal impulsiveness, radiant with resolve one minute and wishing himself hanged the next. His arrest for his uncle's murder makes him the axis of the novel's central injustice, and the reader's sympathy for his wasted promise drives the search for the truth.

Joseph Peters

major

Also known as Joe Peters, Peters, Mr. Peters, Mr. Joseph Peters, Joe

Joseph Peters is the detective force's unglamorous drudge, a man with observant eyes and a mouth set crookedly to one side, present at every stage of Richard's arrest and trial. While the town howls for conviction, Peters keeps his own counsel, watching the prisoner with a scrutiny that could be suspicion or something else entirely. His persistence and peculiar position on the margins of the case make him the quiet engine of the novel's long pursuit of exoneration.

Raymond Marolles

major

Also known as Monsieur Marolles, Raymond, Monsieur Raymond Marolles, Marolles, Monsieur de Marolles, Raymond de Marolles

Raymond Marolles has converted his wife's fortune into estates, a title, and a banking house in London, and the world rewards him with trust and admiration. Yet his marriage to Valerie is a cold war: he taunts her with his command of her money, and she answers with contempt and a threat of vengeance. His stealth and calculation—pocketing a wineglass, promising her that tomorrow she will be 'mademoiselle'—establish him as the novel's presiding menace, a villain whose respectability is his best disguise.

Jabez North

major

Also known as Mr. Jabez North, Jabez, kind old Jabez, Mr. North

Jabez North is the kind of man a town trusts without thinking—a schoolmaster's usher with a soft voice and an inoffensive manner. But when a ragged old woman in Blind Peter mistakes him for her grandson Jim, his composure cracks and his interest pricks up at the mention of a secret worth a mint of money. That encounter exposes the fault line in him: a man who has remade himself into respectability and will do anything to keep the disguise from slipping.

Valerie de Cevennes

major

Also known as Valerie, Mademoiselle Valerie de Cevennes, Mademoiselle Valerie, Mademoiselle de Cevennes, Mademoiselle

Valerie de Cevennes is the brilliant, witty Parisian whose vivacity the world admires and whose private face is shadowed by a despair she can never outrun. Married in secret to an opera-singer and now bound to Raymond Marolles, she talks because she dare not think and hurries from pleasure to pleasure because only excitement keeps the past at bay. Her presence at the opera, pale and blazing-eyed in sombre velvet, turns the novel's social glitter into a stage for a private reckoning.

Augustus Darley

supporting

Also known as Mr. Augustus Darley, Mr. Augustus, Augustus, Gus, Darley, Gus Darley, Mr. Darley

Augustus Darley belongs to Richard's circle of friends, the sort of man who offers practical help and unglamorous constancy while others philosophize or drift. In a town howling for Richard's blood and a case built on circumstantial detail, Darley's willingness to keep asking questions and keep faith with the prisoner matters. His friendship gives the early investigation its human anchor, a reminder that the accused is a man with people who love him, not a name in a newspaper.

Laurent Blurosset

supporting

Also known as Monsieur Blurosset, Monsieur Laurent Blurosset, Blurosset, Laurent, Monsieur de Blurosset

Blurosset belongs to the shadowy machinery that surrounds Raymond Marolles — the sort of associate a man keeps when he needs chemistry, silence, or a name that carries no fingerprints. His value lies in what he knows and what he is willing to overlook, which makes him both an asset and a quiet liability. In the early-to-middle arc he helps give the Marolles intrigues their plausible surface, and the reader learns to watch him the way one watches a door left slightly open.

Miss Kuppins

supporting

Also known as Kuppins, the fair Kuppins

Kuppins has effectively become mistress of the house where the elderly landlady keeps to her room, and she rules the kitchen, the gossip, and the emotional weather of the place. Her loyalty to Mr. Peters is absolute, but so is her appetite for drama — she greets good news with hysterics and tripe with equal ceremony. She matters because she is the warm, comic, human counterweight to the novel's colder schemers, and because she is often the one who first hears what the plot is about to do.

Valerie de Lancy

supporting

Also known as Valerie

Valerie moves through fashionable Paris as Valerie de Lancy, wife of the famous tenor Elvino, a marriage she has kept hidden behind her rank and her beauty. When Raymond Marolles corners her with the secret, she does not beg — she offers to buy him off, cuts the leaves of a book with a steady hand, and listens all the while for her husband's step. Her cold self-possession and her mounting dread make her the emotional center of the novel's early Parisian intrigue, and the cruelty done to her there echoes through everything that follows.

Mr. Jinks

supporting

Also known as Jinks, the affectionate Mr. Jinks

Jinks is the man who claps the handcuffs on Daredevil Dick at the railway station, and he does it with the fussy self-importance of a small official who has finally been handed something worth doing. He is not cruel so much as vain — he admires Richard's innocent astonishment the way a theatergoer admires a fine actor, and he cannot resist a joke about bijouterie. His mixture of officiousness and grudging admiration makes him a memorable face in the machinery of the murder case, and a small, sharp portrait of how justice looks when it is administered by men who enjoy their work.

Percy Cordonner

minor

Also known as Mr. Percy Cordonner, Percy, Mr. Cordonner

A young man involved in the social circles of the story.

Jim Lomax

supporting

Also known as Jim, Jim deary, Jim the labourer

Jim Lomax is a bundle of aching bones carried into Blind Peter with rheumatic fever, tended by a girl who loves him past all reason, and given up for dead by the doctor within three days. What makes him matter is not his poverty but his face: the old doctor swears he and Jabez North could be twins, and Jabez walks home from that remark in thoughtful silence, buying hair-dye the next morning. Jim is the novel's most pitiable figure and, quietly, its most dangerous coincidence.

Marquis de Cevennes

minor

Also known as The Marquis de Cevennes, Monsieur le Marquis, Monsieur de Cevennes, The Marquis, Marquis de Cevennes

The proud father of Valerie de Cevennes.

Daredevil Dick

minor

Also known as poor Daredevil Dick, Dick, poor Dick

A reckless young man who meets a tragic fate.

Gaston de Lancy

minor

Also known as O Gaston de Lancy, Gaston, Monsieur de Lancy

A Frenchman whose disappearance sparks part of the mystery.

Slopperton

minor

Also known as Dr. Tappenden, Montague Harding, the Slopperton, living Slopperton

A school and location central to the initial crime.

Signor Mosquetti

minor

Also known as VI Signor Mosquetti, Mosquetti

An Italian singer who provides a crucial alibi.

Mrs. Moper

minor

Also known as Mrs. Sarah Moper, Sarah Moper, Poor Moper, Moper

A housekeeper at the Slopperton school.

Mrs. Marwood

minor

Also known as a Mrs. Marwood, Mr. and Mrs. Marwood

Richard Marwood's mother.

Montague Harding

minor

Also known as Mr. Montague Harding, Mr. Harding, Mister Harding

A murdered schoolboy, the victim of the central crime.

The Smasher

minor

Also known as The Left-Handed Smasher, Smasher

A criminal with a distinctive left-handed blow.

Miss Smithers

minor

Also known as Smithers, the bewildered Smithers

A governess or teacher at the school.

Mademoiselle Finette

minor

Also known as Finette, mademoiselle

A French maid in service to Valerie de Cevennes.

Jim Stilson

minor

Also known as Jim, James

A sailor or labourer with knowledge of the past.

Brandolph

minor

Also known as Brandolph of the Brand, the Brand

A mysterious figure associated with a secret society.

Isabel Darley

minor

Also known as Isabel, Bell

Augustus Darley's sister and a love interest.

Captain Lansdown

minor

Also known as IX Captain Lansdown

A police captain investigating the case.

Mrs. Martha Jones

minor

Also known as Mrs. Martha, Martha, Mrs. Jones, Jones

A landlady or housekeeper in Slopperton.

Sillikens

minor

A servant or minor functionary.

Isabella Darley

minor

Also known as Bell, Darley

Another name for Isabel Darley, Augustus's sister.

The Elvino

minor

Also known as Elvino, Monsieur Elvino

An opera singer performing in London.

Slosh

minor

A servant or messenger.

Madame Elizabeth

minor

Also known as Liza, Eliza, Madame

A Frenchwoman, possibly a servant or relative.

Father Pérot

minor

Also known as Father

A French priest.

Rinval

minor

Also known as Monsieur Rinval

A French acquaintance of the De Cevennes.

Mujeebez

minor

An exotic foreign character, possibly a servant.

Billy Withers

minor

Also known as Bill Withers, Bill

A young boy, possibly a relative of Mr. Withers.

Dr. Tappenden

minor

Also known as June Dr. Tappenden

The headmaster of the Slopperton school.

Count de Marolles

minor

Also known as The Count de Marolles, de Marolles

The father of Raymond Marolles, a figure from the past.

Mr. Withers

minor

Also known as Mr. William Withers

A lawyer involved in the legal proceedings.

Blind Peter

minor

Also known as Peter

A blind man who lives near the scene of a crime.

Mr. Splitters

minor

Also known as Splitters

A local tradesman or official.

Argyle Fitz-Bertram

minor

Also known as Mr. Argyle Fitz-Bertram, Argyle, Fitz-Bertram, Mr. Fitz-Bertram

A fashionable gentleman about town.

Volpes

minor

Also known as Mr. Volpes

A moneylender or jeweller.

The Lascar

minor

Also known as Lascar

An Indian sailor involved in a subplot.

Paul Moucée

minor

Also known as Monsieur Moucée, Monsieur Paul Moucée, Moucée

A French associate of the Marolles circle.

Vorkins

minor

Also known as Mr. Vorkins

A lawyer or clerk.

Gennaro

minor

An Italian servant or musician.

Sararanne

minor

A female character, possibly a maid or dancer.

Sarah Jane

minor

Also known as Jane, Sarah

A servant girl.

Countess de Marolles

minor

Also known as Countess, the Countess de Marolles

The mother of Raymond Marolles.

Mr. Budgen

minor

Also known as Budgen

A local tradesman or innkeeper.

Lady Londersdon

minor

A society lady.

Tom Jones

minor

Also known as poor Tom, Mrs. Jones, Tom

A henpecked husband, a minor comic figure.

Madame de Lancy

minor

Also known as Madame

The mother of Gaston de Lancy.

Miss Jones

minor

A minor female character.

Martha

minor

Also known as old Martha, Poor Martha

An elderly servant.

Harriet

minor

A young woman, possibly a servant.

Sarah Anne

minor

Also known as Sarah

A minor female character.

Bugden

minor

Also known as Mr. Bugden

A local official or tradesman.

Miss Tappenden

minor

Dr. Tappenden's daughter.

Mr. Hemmar

minor

Also known as Hemmar

A lawyer or clerk.