Acceptable Loss - Characters

 SPOILERS!!!

These are the regular characters in the series:

• Commander William Monk is the main character. In the first novel of the series he woke up in a hospital with no memory, so he had to learn who he was little by little. What he discovered was that he wasn’t a good person, had almost no friends and was cold and too ambitious. William Monk used to be a policeman, but he got fired some time ago after disobeying orders and rebelling against his boss, so he decided to go alone and become a private investigator, and did the job for a while. He also has a sister, Beth, who lives in Northurberland, where he is originally from, but he hardly ever writes to or visits her. Monk still struggles to get some of his memories back, and some time ago he discovered that he had been in love with a woman called Hermione, but when he sought her out, he discovered that she had left him because she couldn’t match his passion. He also has memories of a mentor, a gentleman, who somehow lost his honour. This part of his life gets back to him little by little, and in a previous book he finally remembered everything. When he was young, he had aspirations to be a merchant banker, and his mentor was Arrol Dundas, who was ruined financially, blamed wrongly and died in prison. Monk also had dealings with people who benefited from slavery and might have hidden this from his mentor. Dundas accepted to go to prison for fraud as a way to force a railway manager he had dealings with to stop using some new brakes which caused the death of 200 children. Monk helped him to arrange this deal. Monk can be arrogant, and his relationship with Hester has been ambivalent most of the time. He values her drive and courage, but she used to exasperate him. Now they are married and he thinks the world of her, but there are some dark moments when he thinks he doesn’t deserve her. Now Monk works for the River Police after Inspector Dunbar died in a previous book. Now he and Hester have taken in Scuff and treat him as if he were their child.
• Hester Monk (Latterly)  is the second main character. Hester is a courageous woman, full of spunk and determination. Hester worked as a nurse in the Crimean War and after she returned to England, she discovered she had lost her parents and a brother. George (her brother) died in the Crimean War, and his father committed suicide out of shame and guilt when he encouraged his friends and acquaintances to take part in a business venture that was a total failure. Hester’s mother also died shortly afterwards as she couldn’t stand the pain of losing her son and husband. In London Hester found a position in a hospital thanks to Lady Callandra, but she was fired when she decided to help a patient with a treatment which she knew  worked but had not been tested. She then started working privately. Her job got her in trouble with justice, and in a previous book she was incarcerated, accused of killing her client, but thankfully, Monk and Rathbone helped to clear her name. In the series Hester has a close relationship with William Monk and Oliver Rathbone. She felt that Oliver could be someone she could love. The relationship with Monk has been more difficult as their character clashed often, but he unexpectedly proposed to her and she accepted and now they are married. Hester now admits to herself that she loves William very much and is very happy. Hester runs a clinic to tend to prostitutes and low-class women. Now she and Monk has taken in Scuff as if he were their son. 
• Scuff is a nine-year-old mudlark who befriends Monk. In a previous book he was shot when he was helping Monk, and Hester looked after him. Scuff has grown fond of Monk and Hester, and now he lives with him. He suffers nightmares after he almost died in a previous book. 
• Sir Oliver Rathbone is the barrister who has worked with Monk in different cases. From the first moment Hester meets him, she likes him, and he doesn’t seem indifferent to her. There has always been an attraction there, and in a previous book it was clear that he was going to propose to her, but Hester preempted his intentions by telling him that she valued his friendship and wanted to keep being friends forever. Then Hester married Monk, and now Oliver is married to Margaret Ballinger.
• Margaret Rathbone (Ballinger) is a friend of Hester’s, who helps in the clinic with the women and goes around asking for funds. Margaret comes from a upper-class family and now she is married to Oliver. In the previous book her relationship with Hester cools because Oliver defended a client who Hester and Monk testified against. The client is a man who abuses children, and it was her father who asked Oliver to defend him at the trial. In this book Monk arrests her father for the death of Mickey Parfitt, who also dealt with young boys, and Monk knows that Arthur Ballinger is the leader of the ring. Margaret becomes belligerent against Monk and Hester, saying that they have gone after her father as a personal vendetta. When Oliver fails to get him acquitted, Margaret is horrible to him, and when her father is murdered in prison, she blames Oliver and leaves him and moves in with her mother. 
• Sergeant Orme is now Monk’s closest colleague.
• Claudine Burroughs is a lady who Margaret recruited to help in the clinic. Claudine came across as judgemental and scornful of the women. When the plague hit the clinic and women started dying, she mellowed. Hester discovered that she was not very happy in her marriage. Claudine has changed a great deal, and in the last book she discovered that one of the men that sold pornographic photos was Arthur Ballinger, Margaret’s father. Her husband doesn’t want her to help in the clinic, and in the prvious book they had a row about it. Claudine is ready to abandon her husband if he demands she leave the clinic.
• Squeaky Robinson is the man who used to run the brothel which was then turned into a clinic for prostitutes. Hester used her clever tricks to make Robinson to agree to let her use the premises of the brothel for the clinic free of rent. Now Squeaky helps in the clinic but he is always complaining. 
• Dr Crow is a doctor who in a previous book patched up Monk when he was stabbed in the arm. Crow also helps Hester and Scuff in this book when he finds out that Hettie stole Carew's cravat.
• Dr Gordimer is the police surgeon.
• Commander Birkenshaw is Monk's new boss. The man seemingly doesn't like Monk.
• Mr Sutton is the rat-catcher who helps in Hester’s clinic. 
• Soot is Sutton’s dog.
• Henry Rathbone is Oliver Rathbone’s father. Henry is very fond of Hester
• Bessie is another woman who helps Hester in the clinic. Bessie used to be a prostitute and doesn’t like having the police around.
• Ruby works in the clinic.
• Superintendent Franham is Monk’s ex-boss in the River Police.
• Commander Durban belonged to the river police, and he and Monk worked together. When they discovered the truth, Durban and Monk took the ship upriver to sink it, and Durban decided to go down with the ship because he had contracted the plague. In this book his honour is put into question, and Jericho Phillips spread rumours that the man used small children to supply him. Hester and Monk discover that Durban tried to find a woman named Mary Webber. Mary was his sister. Durban and Mary’s mother died, and Mary was adopted but her adopted mother and father couldn’t take in the boy as well. Mary and Durban kept in touch for a while, and then Durban fell with a bad lot, but when his friends got involved in a robbery, he decided to join the police. Mary, who had changed her name after her marriage, hadn’t kept in touch, and that is why Durban wanted to find her.
• Wallace Burroughs is Claudine’s husband. He doesn’t want her to work in the clinic and forbids her to return.
• Superintendent Samuel Runcorn is the chief of police and used to be Monk’s boss. He has always been hostile to Monk and expected his failure. He ended up firing Monk when the latter refused to arrest the main suspect in a case. In a previous book he and Monk had a truce, and there seems to be less hostility between them when they have to work together. In a previous book he seemed to be interested in a widow, Melisande Ewart.
• Jones, Kelly and Cardman are policemen in the River Police.
• Flo is a prostitute who helps in the clinic. She has an explosive personality and she has some run-ins with Ruth Clark.
• Lady Callandra Daviot was a  mentor/protector for Hester and Monk.  Callandra is honest to a fault and a very determined woman. When Monk was fired from the police, she agreed to finance his private venture on the condition he told her about his most interesting cases. Callandra was also a governor in the Royal Free Hospital, and she fell in love with Dr Kristian Beck, a doctor in the hospital , who used to be married, but his wife was murdered in a previous book. In a previous book Callandra announced that she was marrying Dr Beck and they were going to live in Austria, where Beck is originally from.
• Dr Kristian Beck is the man Lady Callandra is in love with. He used to be married, but his marriage was not a happy one. In a previous book Beck’s wife was murdered and he was charged with her murder. Thankfully, in the end Hester and Monk discovered who the real killer was. When Monk investigated, he discovered that Dr Beck is of Jewish origin, but his great grandparents changed their family name and converted to protect the family. Now Beck and Callandra are married and they have decided to move to Austria.
• Mr Taunton has a shipping company in the West Indian Docks, and investigating a case Monk discovered that he knew Taunton from his past, and in the conversation they had, Monk found out that he and Taunton had dealings with people involved in slavery.
• Arroll Dundas used to be Monk’s mentor. In previous books Monk started remembering. Dundas was ruined financially in some scheme he was blamed for, so he was sent to prison where he died. Monk discovered that Dundas didn’t fight because he reached an agreement with Nolan Baltimore, a railway manager, so he would accept the blame and Nolan would stop using the brakes which had killed many innocent children. Dundas loved Monk like a son.
• Sergeant John Evan used to be Monk’s partner. Evan is honest and generous.
• Simms is Oliver Rathbone’s chief clerk
• Coleridge is Oliver’s assistant.
• Inspector Jeavis is the detective who replaced Monk when he left the police. Monk doesn’t like him.
• Edith Sobell is a friend of Hester’s. She is a widow and Hester got her a position as some kind of scribe for Major Tiplady. In the end she and Major Tiplady got married.
• Major Horatio Tiplady hired Hester to nurse him when he broke his leg. Then Hester recommended Edith to write his memoirs. They eventually married
• Beth Bannerman is Monk’s sister, who he hasn’t seen in years. He went to see her after the accident which stole his memories, but he hasn’t gone to see her since.
• Rob Bannerman is Monk’s brother-in-law
• Mrs Imogen Latterly is Hester’s sister-in-law. She is married to Charles, Hester’s brother. Imogen first came into contact with Monk because she wanted him to investigate the death of her father-in-law. Imogen is a beautiful woman, and Monk initially felt haunted by her beauty and charm. In a previous book Hester discovered that Imogen gambled. Imogen almost died when the killer attacked her after he realised that Imogen saw him the day of the murders.
• Charles Latterly is Imogen’s husband. He is not a very nice character as he appears to be overbearing, pushy and unkind. He cares about his reputation and money more than his sister.
• Hermione Ward is the woman whose memory haunted Monk for months. Monk discovered that she was accused of killing her husband, and Monk worked hard to get her acquitted.  Monk remembered loving Hermione, and when he went to see her, she told him that their story ended because she couldn’t match his passion..

These are the characters who appear in this novel:

• Arthur Ballinger is Margaret’s father and Oliver’s father-in-law. In the previous book he asked Oliver to take the defence of Jericho Phillips because a good client of his had asked him. He turns out to be one of the men who were regular clients of Phillips’. Claudine discovered this about him, and in this book he stands trial for murdering another man working for him, and he is found guilty. Arthur not only murders Parfitt but also a prostitute, Hattie, to protect himself. When he confesses to Oliver, he says that he killed Parfitt to get Monk off his back. He thought that if Monk failed to crack this case, he would be demoted at the River Police. He also says to Oliver that he blackmailed the men because that way he could ask them political favours. Arthur was for liberal policies, but paradoxically he commits horrible crimes to defend worthwhile principles. At the end of the book Arthur is murdered in prison but we do not get to know who his murderer is. 
• Rupert Cardew (33) is a young man who helps Hester in her clinic financially. His life is quite wild as he frequents brothels and places of ill repute. When Parfitt is found dead, he is arrested when the cravat used to strangle Parfitt turns out to be his. Yet, the prostitute who he was with says that she stole the cravat, and Cardew is released from prison. It is during the trial to Ballinger that he testifies and tells the names of those men who frequented Parfitt's place and thanks to his testimony Arthur Ballinger is found guilty.
• Hattie Benson is the prostitute who was with Carew the night Mickey Parfitt was murdered. She confesses to Hester that she took the cravat but refuses to tell her or Monk who she gave it to because she is afraid. To protect her Monk takes her to Hester's clinic. However, Margaret tells her something and she leaves the clinic, and one of Margaret's sister takes her to a house. Then she receives the visit of someone who claims to be Rupert Cardew and Hattie goes with him. Shortly afterwards she is found dead, murdered in the same way as Parfitt. 
• Lord Cardew is Rupert's father. 
• Winchester is the prosecutor in the trial of Arthur Ballinger.
• Mickey Parfitt (37) is the man who is murdered in the book. Parfitt had a business on his boat where he received rich men and offered them young boys. Then he blackmailed them, using the photographs he had taken on the boat. 
• Horrible (Orrie) Jones worked for Parfitt and discovered his dead body.
• Tosh Wilkin is another man working for Parfitt. At the end of the book Monk believes that he was the man Hattie gave Carew's cravat to.
• Crumble also worked for Parfitt.
• Gwen is Margaret's sister
• Wilbert is Gwen's husband.
• Celia is Margaret's sister.
• George is Celia's husband.
• Bertie Harkness is the friend who Ballinger visited the night Parfitt was killed. He was his alibi but Monk proved that after leaving Harkness, Arthur could sail to Parfitt's boat and kill him. 
• Constable Coburn is the policeman who was first alerted about Parfitt's death. 
• Stanley Willington is the ferryman who took Arthur the night Parfitt died.
• Jericho Phillips was a criminal whose trade was using boys to satisfy rich men’s appetites. Monk arrested him but he was found not-guilty when Oliver defended him. Monk couldn't accept that Jericho would get unpunished. When Phillips found himself cornered, he kidnapped Scuff, but thankfully, Monk and Hester rescued him. Jericho tried to escape from Monk, but then Justice Sullivan killed him.
• Walter Figgis (Fig) (14) is the boy who Jericho Phillips killed, a crime Monk arrested him for. Yet, Phillips was found not guilty.
• Lord Justice Sullivan was the judge at Jericho's trial. He turned out to be partial, and he confessed to being addicted to the pleasures that Jericho supplied.  Sullivan killed Jericho and committed suicide, but before that, he told Monk that the man behind all this business was Arthur Ballinger.