Characters

Characters: flat

= __Johnnie Butt__ = Johnnie Butt is the paper delivery boy in Chipping Cleghorn.

= __Mrs. Swettenham__ = Mrs. Swettenham is a gossipy old woman living in Chipping Cleghorn with her son, Edmund, and her maid, Mrs. Finch. Mrs. Swettenham often reads the personal column of the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette and is extremely judgmental of what she reads.

= __Edmund Swettenham__ = Edmund is the son of Mrs. Swettenham. Although he does not work, and instead claims to be writing "a book," the reader discovers that Edmund subscribes to the communist political beliefs system. Edmund is not concerned about the dinner party and thinks it a silly idea.

= __Mrs. Finch__ = Mrs. Finch is the Swettenham family’s maid. She highly dislikes Edmund because she disagrees with his ideas, especially those that have to do with politics.

= __Colonel Archie Easterbrook__ = Col. Easterbrook is the husband of Mrs. Easterbrook. The Colonel seems less concerned about the affairs of Chipping Cleghorn and more concern about worldwide affairs, claiming in chapter one to be worried about the state of India. Colonel likes to believe that he knows a lot about police work and psychology. The man confidently shares his ideas with no qualms about how correct he may be.

= __Mrs. Easterbrook__ = Mrs. Easterbrook is the Colonel's doting wife, who is around 30 years younger than her husband. She is constantly reassuring the Colonel of how smart he is and how much he knows.

= __Miss Hinchcliffe__ = A tall, skinny, mannish woman who spends most of her time gardening and tending to her chickens. She is more serious than her housemate, Miss Murgatroyd. Many times, she blatantly calls out Murgatroyd as stupid and asks her to use her brain. But when Murgatroyd is murdered, Hinchliffe takes her death very seriously and vows to get back at the culprit. What a great friend. Each time Miss Marple gets close to discovering the truth, Hinch gets more and more nervous, and her actions lead the reader to believe that she is the culprit. But, when tragedy hits Hinch, she suddenly softens and the reader realizes she was simply trying to cover up her past.

= __Miss Murgatroyd__ = The fatter, more amiable resident of the house known as Boulders. She responds to Miss Hinchcliffe's every request, seeming to be the weaker-minded of the two. She is often called stupid and dumb but ironically seems to figure out who was the murderer. But when she is about to get her spotlight she is strangled and murdered.

= __Reverend Julian Harmon__ = Reverend Harmon is the local church Reverend, and is well liked around the village for his powerful teachings in the church. He lives very happily with his wife, Mrs. Harmon. He does not attend the dinner party.

= __Mrs. Harmon__ = Mrs. Harmon is a very outspoken woman who doesn't filter her thoughts. When she comes to the dinner party, she immediately asks when the murder is starting, while everyone else had been pretending to simply drop by. She later introduces the detectives to Mrs. Marple.

= __Letitia Blacklock__ = Letitia Blacklock is in her late 60’s and is the owner of the Little Paddocks estate. She is accompanied in the house by her longtime friend, Dora Bunner, and her cook, Mitzi. She is skipped as a suspect by Inspector Craddock and is detached from the investigation. She often felt annoyed and reluctant with the Inspector rummaging through stuff and interviewing her. Near the end of the novel however, it is discovered that Blacklock is behind the murders after she tries to kill Mitzi. Miss Marple further exposes Lelitia true identity as Charlotte Blacklock, her sister.

= __Dora Bunner__ = Mrs. Bunner is Leticia Blacklock’s elderly flighty childhood friend. She is usually known by her nickname, “Bunny”. She is one of the few to know the truth about Miss Blacklock. After her birthday party, she dies after taking a poisoned aspirin tablet.

= __Phillipa Haymes__ = Mrs. Haymes works for Letitia Blacklock as a gardener. She’s a widow and has a son who goes to a boarding school. She was not present at the party. Her husband was a deserter in World War II, a fact she denies, until it is discovered during investigation. The conversation that she has with him is what makes Mitzi suspicious of her. She is also known as Pip, Emma’s (Julia Simmon’s ‘real’ name) sister.

= __Old Ashe__ = Old Ashe is the old man encountered by Craddock on his visit to Dayas hall to meet Phillipa Haymes. He complains about how Phillipa Haymes will not listen and criticizes the gardening of the place. He explains the “talk” that the holdup caused (55).

= __Julia Simmons__ = Julia is the sister of Patrick Simmons and is more serious, she is also spoiled and foolish just like her brother. Julia Simmons is also known as Emma who is the daughter of Sonia Goedler.

= __Patrick Simmons__ = Cousin of Letitia Blacklock and known by the others as the humorous one. He always plays jokes on other people, and is foolish and spoiled. Letitia Blacklock first thinks that the party advertisement in the newspaper was his idea. He is one of the first people questioned and thinks that Miss Blacklock thought it was him because he always plays tricks. He falls into Emma’s trap and brings her home under the name of Julia Simmons.

= __Mitzi__ = Mitzi is Leticia Blacklock's servant. She works in the kitchen, and she is very paranoid and thinks that someone is always out to get her and that everyone thinks they are superior to her. She escaped Nazi Germany and the memories of what happened to her in the country stays with her. When Craddock came to ask her questions about the murder, she immediately thought that they would torture her to confess to a crime, even though they just wanted to ask her a few questions. She did not want to be in the house during the time of the murder when it was first discovered because she thought she would be killed.

= __George Rydesdale__ = George Rydesdale is the Chief Constable of Middleshaire and the superior of Inspector Craddock. He is noted for his “habit of listening rather than talking” and then,with an unemotional voice giving a brief order(29). He takes a liking towards Inspector Craddock and admires Craddock’s brain’s, imagination,and his self discipline to go slow.

= __Dermott Craddock__ = Dermott Craddock is the inspector in charge of the case relating to Little Paddocks. He interviews everyone who was present at the party during the crime, and anyone who possibly knew anything about the crime, but none of them can tell him very much about the crime or why it was committed. However, after talking to Miss Marple, he finds out that Rudi attempted to steal money from her by altering a check, and Myrna then tells him that Rudi was paid to stage a hold-up, and slowly begins to unravel the truth.

= __Rudi Scherz__ = Rudi Scherz is the boy who worked at the Royal Spa Hotel who is accused to have broken into Letitia Blacklock’s house, attempted to shot her twice, and then accidentally killed himself. He was extremely close with Myrna Harris, whom he also bragged to about being rich, although he never had anything to show for it.

= __Sergeant Fletcher__ = Sergeant Fletcher is given responsibility for searching and collecting evidence at Little Paddocks. He is suspicious of Mitzi, deeming her very temperamental, and is noted to be an “expert on electricity”(109). Originally, he believed that someone in the house had oiled the door but he came to realize any outsider could have easily done as well after learning from Mrs. Swettenham that nobody locked the doors until it was dark and anyone could walk into anyone’s house.

= __Sir Henry Clithering__ = Sir Henry Clithering is an ex-commissioner of Scotland Yard who is a good friend of Commissioner George Rydesdale. When presented with the case, Clithering brings up Miss Marple, who he describes as “finest detective God ever made”(31).

= __Myrna Harris__ = Myrna Harris is a waitress at The Royal Spa Hotel who had been in a close relationship with Rudi Scherz. When first interviewed, Harris explains to Craddock that she had been suspicious of Rudi Scherz but had no idea that he was a crook. But when revisited by Craddock, she reveals that Scherz had disclosed his plan of staging a hold-up at the Blacklock residence. She is noted to be alarmed,wary, and deeply conscious when interviewed by the police.

= __Miss Marple__ = Miss Marple is an old woman with “white hair”, “pink crinkled face”, “blue eyes”, and wore lots of clothes made out of wool (67). Miss Marple is an old woman who is the aunt of Miss Marple. She is very smart and has a good eye and mind for pointing out discrepancies in murder cases or mistakes made by others. She is known to solve many mysteries and the detectives are wary of her. She solves this murder, and is known to be very witty and intelligent.