Who’s Who in The Hallmarked Man
The new Strike novel has arrived! Here’s a first look at some of the key characters Robin Ellacott and Cormoran Strike encounter as they unravel the mystery, and some of their co-workers and contacts who also play a role in their personal and professional lives as the investigation unfolds.
He found himself facing a pale, dumpy woman whose long, straggly brown hair had greying roots and which looked as though it hadn’t been cut in a long time.
The Hallmarked Man, Robert Galbraith
When Decima Mullins hires Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, she has a strange request. She wants to prove that the body found in the vault of a silver shop in central London is that of her missing boyfriend, Rupert Fleetwood.
Decima’s request seems bizarre, after all the police have announced the body was that of know criminal Jason Knowles, and Decima is also keeping secrets which make Robin and Strike reluctant to take the case.
The case has some interesting aspects – it quickly becomes clear that perhaps the police did jump the gun when they announced the dead man was Jason – but that doesn’t mean the body was Rupert’s. Also, though partners don’t want to leave Decima at the mercy of unscrupulous actors, Strike has personal reasons for not wanting to get involved. Decima is part of the Longcaster clan, which means Strike’s ex-fiancée, Charlotte Campbell whose mother was once married to Dino Longcaster, is likely to haunt the investigation.
The puzzle extends beyond the Longcasters. Other men have gone missing, might one of them turn out to be the body?
The mystery ripples far from the locked vault, from London to Ironbridge; from exclusive Mayfair Clubs to an anonymous house in Newham; from Perthshire to the tiny channel island of Sark.
The Investigation
The Longcaster Clan
Decima Mullins
The agency’s client is a talented chef and the owner of the Happy Carrot on Sloane Street. Decima is currently hiding from her family in a property in Temple Ewell, Kent and in desperate need of answers from Strike and Robin about her missing boyfriend, Rupert Fleetwood.
Dino Longcaster
Owner of ‘Dino’s’, a private member’s club in Mayfair with a three-star Michelin restaurant attached. Father of Decima Mullins. A tall, heavy man whose default expression is one of boredom bordering on disdain. Dino was married to Charlotte Campbell’s mother, Tara, for two acrimonious and explosive years. He is also the godfather and previous employer of the missing Rupert Fleetwood.
Valentine & Cosima Longcaster
Valentine is the son of Dino, brother of Decima, and stepbrother of Charlotte Campbell. Like Charlotte, he has a waspish sense of humour, a love of cocaine, and a detestation of all that is worthy and dull.
Strike meets him at Annabel’s, another exclusive Mayfair club, shortly before the investigation into the death of Edie Ledwell begins (The Ink Black Heart). He tells Strike then that the detective is going to get dragged into Charlotte’s divorce from Jago Ross, and that his friend, Madeline, thinks he is sexy. The introduction leads to a painful romance for Strike.
Cosima, Valentine’s teenaged half-sister, reminds Strike of the teenager he was watching in Annabel’s the night he met Madeline. Good-looking, spoilt and described in at least one glossy magazine as an ‘it girl extraordinaire’.
Tara, Lady Jenson
(formerly Tara Clairmont, Tara Campbell, Tara Longcaster and Tara Legard)
Charlotte’ Campbell’s mother, now married to her fourth husband, Lord Jenson. Tara is part of the Clairmont family, founders of the Clairmont hotel chain, and was also once an ‘it girl’. Continually cruel to Charlotte, her maternal instinct was awakened when she had her son Sacha Legard, on whom she dotes. She now lives at her son’s stately home, Heberley House, Northumberland, while her husband occupies his own house in Mayfair.
Sacha Legard
Oscar nominated actor, and half-brother of Charlotte Campbell. Also cousin of Rupert Fleetwood through his father. Currently starring in ‘Death Is No Punishment’ at the National Theatre.
Rupert Fleetwood
Boyfriend of Decima Mullins, and godson of Dino Longcaster. Nephew of Ned Legard, and cousin of his son the actor Sacha Legard. Orphaned at a young age, he lived in Switzerland for many years. Worked at Dino’s for some time, and lived with a drug-dealing friend, Zacharias Lorimer, until shortly before ‘William Wright’ arrived to work at Ramsay Silver.
Ramsay Silver
William Wright
False name used by a new clerk at Ramsay Silver who was found dead in the vault of the shop after a robbery. Initially, and possibly mistakenly, identified as convicted armed robber, Jason Knowles
Kenneth Ramsay
Owner, with his wife, of Ramsay Silver in Holborn which specialises in Masonic Insignia, Silverware and Rarities and who has the look of an aging cherub. Ramsay is distressed by family tragedy, the illness of his wife and the loss of the uninsured Murdoch silver, stolen when ‘William Wright’ was murdered. He is also trying to keep his financial services job while keeping the shop afloat.
Pamela Bullen – Driscoll
Sister of Kenneth Ramsay’s wife who currently manages ‘Bullen & Co’ a silver firm based in the London Silver Vaults founded by their great-grandfather. Square woman with a fashion sense stuck firmly in the 1980s.
Jim Todd
Cleaner at Ramsay’s shop.
Missing Men
Tyler Powell
Powerfully built young man who has gone missing from his home in Ironbridge. Reported by his grandmother as a possible candidate for body found in Ramsay Silver.
Niall Semple
Ex-paratrooper with mental health problems who reported missing from his home in Crieff, Scotland by his wife Jade. Last sighted in Camden. Candidate for the body found in the vault of Ramsay Silver.
Dangerous Dick de Lion
Missing actor in adult films. Identified as a candidate for the body found in the vault of Ramsay Silver by a nervous friend.
The Agency
Cormoran Strike & Robin Ellacott
Detectives and business partners.
Pat Chauncey
Gravel-voiced office Manager at the Strike and Ellacott detective agency.
Midge Greenstreet, Dev Shah and Sam Barclay
Tried and tested subcontractors at the agency.
Kim Cochran
New hire at the agency who previously worked for Mitch Patterson, a private detective currently on trial for illegal surveillance. Ex-police, pertly pretty and well-groomed.
Plug
Agency target living with his son and elderly mother in Camberwell.
Two-Times
Regular agency client.
Mr A
Agency client and international cricketer convinced his ex-wife is having an affair with journalist Dominic Culpepper.
Lord Oliver Branfoot
Former Conservative MP and regular genial bumbling blue-blood, now campaigning for stricter regulation of the private investigations industry whose quotes appear in articles by Dominic Culpepper.
Press and Police
Dominic Culpepper
Journalist whose previous relationship with the agency has soured badly. Cousin of Nina Lascelles, publisher with whom Strike has a brief fling during the investigation into the disappearance of Owen Quine (The Silkworm).
Fergus Robertson
Journalist with whom the agency has better relations. Has worked extensively on the aftermath of the investigation into the Universal Humanitarian Church (The Running Grave).
Ryan Murphy
Robin’s long-term boyfriend and CID officer. Caught up in a difficult and stressful investigation of his own, but keen to move his relationship with Robin forward.
Eric Wardle
Long standing contact of the agency at the Met. Divorced with an eighteen-month-old son.
Friends, Family and Contacts
Ted Nancarrow
Strike’s elderly uncle.
Lucy
Strike’s half-sister with whom he spends Christmas in Bromley. Married to Greg and mother of Strike’s three nephews.
Johnny Rokeby
Strike’s rock star father, who he has not seen in over twenty years. Rokeby makes various attempts to reach out to his oldest son after Strike’s successes bring him to public attention.
Linda Ellacott
Robin’s mother. Keen on Murphy, but suspicious of Strike and of Robin’s career, especially after her long stint undercover exposing the Universal Humanitarian Church (The Running Grave).
Martin, Jonathan and Stephen Ellacott
Robin’s brothers. Martin’s partner, Carmen, is pregnant as the investigation begins, as is Jenny, Stephen’s wife. Jonathan, her youngest brother, is now working for a brand consultancy in Manchester.
Bijou Watkins
Acquaintance of Strike’s friend Ilsa Herbert, with whom Strike had a brief liaison in spite of Ilsa’s warnings as the investigation into the UHC began (The Running Grave). Also, former lover of top barrister Andrew Humbold.
Matthew and Sarah Cunliffe
Robin’s ex-husband and his second wife who, like Robin, are spending Christmas in their hometown of Masham, Yorkshire.
