Characters in The Clocks

Supporting characters

• Hercule Poirot

  Treats the affair as a test of his claim that intellect alone can crack a crime, never visiting the scene or the suspects.

  Also in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, Mystery of the Blue Train, Black Coffee, Peril at End House, Lord Edgware Dies, Murder on the Orient Express

• Colin Lamb

  Working a counter-espionage matter nearby, he brings the murder to Poirot as a challenge; Christie hinted he is the son of Superintendent Battle.

• Sheila Webb

  Sent to an appointment she did not arrange, she finds the dead man and is drawn into the inquiry.

• Detective Inspector Hardcastle

  Works the case on the ground and feeds his findings to Colin and, through him, to Poirot.

• Miss Millicent Pebmarsh

  A former teacher of blind children who denies summoning the typist or owning most of the clocks.

• Miss Katherine Martindale

  Employer of Sheila and Edna; she records the booking that sent Sheila to the house.

• Mrs Merlina Rival

  Names the victim as a husband from her past, adding fresh complications to his identity.

• Edna Brent

  Troubled by something said at the inquest, she becomes a second casualty before she can explain it.