Looking For Trouble - Characters

These are the characters in the novel for future reference:

SPOILERS!!!

REGULAR CHARACTERS

- Sal Kilkenny is a detective who struggles to make ends meet. Sal has a four-year-old daughter, Maddie, but we do not know who the father of her child is. Sal had a traumatic experience when she was knifed in a previous case, but we don't get the details either. Sal shares her house with Ray and his son, but they do not have a romatic relationship. They simply share the responsibilities of the house and the children. 

- Maddie Kilkenny (4) is Sal's little girl.

- Ray Costello is Sal's housemate. He is a carpenter but also studies at university. He has a three-year-old son.

- Tom Costello (3) is Ray's son. 

- Diane is Sal's best friend. She works in art and at the beginning of the book she is in a relationship with Ben, but they break up in the course of the novel.

- Mama Tello is Ray's mother. She is disapproving of Sal because she suspects that Sal and her son are lovers. And she looks down on the Sal's mothering skills. 

- Clive is Sal and Ray's lodger. They are not happy with him because he owes them money and is very messy at home. Sal and Ray want to talk to him, but Clive still does not cooperate. So in the end Sal asks him to leave, and he finally takes his things out of the house. 

- Harry is Sal's journalist friend. Sal feels attracted to him, but at the end of the book when she learns that Harry and Bev are having a new baby, she goes off him instantly.

- Bev is Harry's wife. She and Harry have two children, and at the end of the book she is pregnant again. 

- Digger is the dog that belonged to JB and now Sal has adopted him. Sal is not fond of animals, so it is Ray who has taken a shine to the dog. 

- Chris is one of Sal's friends. She is a lesbian.

- Jackie and Grant Dobson own the house where Sal has her office next door from where she lives. They are both teachers. 

- Ben was Diane's boyfriend.

CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL

- Janice Brooks is a woman who hires Sal to look for her missing son. She tells her that her name is Mrs Hobbs. Sal learns about her real name when she reads the newspaper and discovers that she has been murdered. Curious, Sal keeps investigating and discovers through Janice's mother that Martin was Janice's son who she gave up for adoption. 

- Martin Hobbs is the young man whose disappearance Sal investigates. When she finds him, he tells her that his father abused him. Then she sees him with an older man in a luxurious car and follows them. Sal tries to talk to him because Janice sent her a letter for him before his death, but all her attempts are blocked by the man who Martin was with. In the end, Martin escapes and reaches for his friend Max to help him. 

- JB (Harry Hargreaves) is the homeless boy who helps Sal to locate Martin, but he is murdered.

- Leanne (13) is the homeless girl who helps Sal but she also gives information to the killer about Sal. At the end of the book Leanne kills Smiley for killing her friends, JB and Ken. She runs away and at the end of the book the police haven't caught up with her. 

- DI Miller is the investigating officer on the death of JB and Janice. He turns out to be involved in the crimes. Leanne shoots him and at the end of the book he steps down from the police.

- DS Boyston is Miller's partner. 

- Nina Zelesky is the neighbour of Fraser Mackinglay who helps Sal by giving her information about her neighbour. 

- Max Ainsworth is Martin's schoolfriend, and he is the one who Martin reaches out for help, and Max calls Sal and they go to find him. 

- Natalie Mitchell is Janice's half-sister. 

- Fraser Mackinglay is the man who kept Martin prisoner. 

- Bruce Sharrocks is one of the men involved in a criminal gang trading porn videos of minors.

- Eleanor Williams is Janice's mother. 

- Derek Carlton (18) is a homeless boy whose body is fished out of the river. The police conclude that he killed Janince. 

- Smiley is the killer of JB, Derek and Janice. He is shot dead by Leanne.

- Sheila and Keith Hobbs are Martin's adopted parents. 

- Ross O'Brien was Martin's teacher.