Characters in By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Supporting characters

• Tuppence Beresford

  Now a grandmother but as impulsive and intuitive as ever, she drives the investigation almost entirely on instinct and a refusal to let a stray remark go.

  Also in Postern of Fate, Partners in Crime

• Tommy Beresford

  The steadier, more methodical half of the pair, he works official and personal contacts while worrying about where his wife's curiosity is leading her.

  Also in The Secret Adversary, Postern of Fate, Partners in Crime

• Aunt Ada

  A sharp-tongued, cantankerous old woman whose residence at Sunny Ridge is the thread that draws the Beresfords into the affair.

• Mrs Lancaster

  A sweet, confused old lady whose quiet question about a child behind the fireplace, and her sudden disappearance, set the whole mystery in motion.

• Emma Boscowan

  Plain-spoken and oddly perceptive, she identifies the canal-house painting as her late husband's work and notices a detail that has been added to it.

• Miss Bligh

  A brisk, managing woman who seems to run everything in the village and attaches herself helpfully to visitors.

• Mrs Copleigh

  A relentless gossip whose flood of local talk feeds Tuppence rumours of old crimes the district has tried to bury.

• William Boscowan

  Never seen alive in the story, his painting of a house by the water is the central object Tuppence chases across the countryside.