# The Wrong Letter — Character guide

> Key figures in The Wrong Letter by Walter S. Masterman.

- [Sylvester Collins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/sylvester_collins.md): Collins abandoned a promising legal career to work cases alongside Scotland Yard, where his keen, trained brain is both welcomed and feared by officials who prefer tidy conclusions. He arrives at the Home Office inquiry 
- [Arthur Sinclair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/arthur_sinclair.md): Sinclair earned his post through solid work in India and makes no claims to brilliance, which is precisely why he values Collins's help and tolerates his riddles. When a woman's voice coolly informs him the Home Secretar
- [Eric Sanders](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/eric_sanders.md): Eric Sanders occupies an impossible position: trusted insider in the Watson household, yet barred by Sir James from courting Mabel, with words exchanged between them that the servants overheard. A visiting card found in 
- [Mabel Watson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/mabel_watson.md): Mabel grew up motherless in a country house full of roses, preferring her garden to London's gloomy social round, and never learned that her father had been watching her admirers with anxious suspicion. She carries one b
- [Sir James Watson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/james_watson.md): Sir James kept his home life simple and his friendships few, a haughty widower who could never quite believe his only daughter had grown up. He had already banished one child — a son sent down from Oxford and shipped off
- [F. D. Boyce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/f_d_boyce.md): Boyce has inflated since the murder, trading on departmental authority while clumsily letting sensitive details slip to colleagues and then sulking when Collins calls him out. He bristles at Collins's contempt, questions
- [Mr. Allery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/mr_allery.md): Allery of Allery & Watkins has handled the Watson family's legal affairs long enough to hold its most dangerous confidences, and his fatherly courtesy on a departure platform masks a professional's careful discretion. He
- [Mrs. Simmons](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/mrs_simmons.md): Housekeeper or local woman providing information or lodging.
- [Miss Watson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/miss_watson.md): Mabel Watson moves through the drawn blinds of Leveson Square with a composure that costs her, grateful for Collins's tactful management yet chilled whenever he admits he is hunting a criminal. Her wistful invitation to 
- [Lewis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/lewis.md): Servant or assistant who appears in the household.
- [Old John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/old_john.md): Elderly servant or groundskeeper at the estate.
- [Sir Ronald Watson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/ronald_watson.md): Sir Ronald Watson was cut out of his father's will and sent abroad in disgrace, and he comes home to an inheritance of suspicion rather than estate. His father's letter, and the secret panel he alone knows how to open, h
- [John Henry Jackson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wrong_letter_se/characters/john_henry_jackson.md): Distinct from other Jacksons, possibly a police officer.

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