Sycamore Gap - Characters

 

SPOILERS!!!

These are the characters for futher reference:

Regular characters (or relevant in the series continuity):

• DCI Maxwell Charles Finley-Ryan (Ryan) (35) is the main character in the book. We first meet him when he is living on Holy Island during a leave from work and the body of a young woman, Lucy, was found, The reason why he was on compassionate leave was that months ago when he was investigating a serial killer called the Hacker, the murderer targeted his sister and killed her. Ryan felt guilty about it and took his leave. When the body  of Lucy was discovered, he volunteered to lead the investigation. Through the investigation he met Anna Taylor, who was sent as an independent consultant, and they started a relationship. 
• Anna Taylor (28) is the second main character. Anna is a university professor at Durham University and her specility is history. She was called as an independent consultant for Lucy's murder. Anna is originally from Holy Island, but left shortly after her parents died. She discovered that her sister and her boyfriend were together, and her father had left a heap of debts. Her father had been an abuser, and her mother was found dead at the foot of the stairs. Rumours circulated that her father had killed her, and then her father jumped from the cliff. Anna's relationship with Megan was always difficult. She was almost murdered at the end of the last book, but Ryan saved her. 
• DS Frank Phillips is Ryan's second-in-command. Phillips is divorced and in the last book he started a relationship with DI Denise MacKenzie, and they seem to be very good together.
• DI Denise MacKenzie is the red-headed officer in the unit and she and Phillips are now in a relationship. She is determined and fiery. It is thanks to her that they arrest the killer. 
• DCS Arthur Gregson is Ryan's boss. He  is part of the Circle, a group of satanic worship. He started in the cult when he was very young, and we learn that he reached his position at the police thanks to the underhand businesses of the circle. In this book the High Priest asks him to kill Jack Lowerson, but he feels unable to do it. So he begs Professor Jane Freeman for help, but he is now in the High Priest's black book. 
• Dr Keir Edwards, The Hacker is the killer who murdered Ryan's sister and many other women. He is now in prison, but he still wants to exert his power. He admits to having had a relationship with Amy, but someone else killed him. At the end of the book he has found a accomplice in Colin Hart. 
• Tom Faulkner is the senior crime scene officer.
• DC Jack Lowerson is a young constable, who was attacked when he was investigating the Holy Island case. He has been in a coma for six months, but now he has awaken, but he does not remember anything. The Circle thinks he is a risk that they need to get rid of, and Gregson is commisioned his murder, but Gregson feel unable to kill him. 
• Dr Jeffrey Pinter is the senior police pathologist. At some point he is suspected to be the killer but he turns out to be innocent. Now Jeff is dating a woman, and that is why he is so nervous about it. 
• Dr Mark Bowers is a part-time coast guard and historian. He was Anna's mentor and thanks to him, Anna studied at university. Anna regards him as a father figure, but Mark's intentions towards her are not so fatherly. Mark also belongs to the circle and the new high priest. He locked the vicar and his wife in his basement, and it seems that he intended to kill him in the last book. 
• Dr Ambrose is the entomologist, who analises insects in dead bodies.
• Professor Jane Freeman is the Chief Archaelogist of National Heritage and she raises a fuss when the police find Alice. Jane turns out to be part of the Circle.
• Alex Walker (29) is a local coast guard and years ago he and Anna were in a relationship. Yet, she discovered that he and her sister Megan were having an affair. . In the last book he was suspected to be a murderer, but he proves his innocence when he says that he was with Rob when the murders took place. He and Rob have been together for years. 
• Megan Taylor (29) was Anna's sister.  Megan was killed by the high priest (Dr Walker). 
• Dr Steve Walker was the killer of Megan and Rob. He was the high priest of the circle, a satanic group. When Dr Walker was arrested, he hinted that he also killed Anna's parents years ago. 
• Mike Ingles was the local vicar on Holy Island. He disappeared and we know that Mark Bowers kidnapped him and his wife, and he intended to kill them. 
• Jennifer Ingles was the vicar's wife. She was the one to supply the circle with the seeds of morning glory to drug the victims. 
• Andy Taylor was Anna and Megan's father. He owned the local pub, and he illtreated his wife and daughters. Andy's body was found washed up on the beach, and for years it was thougth this showed his guilt over his wife's death, but after Dr Walker was arrested, the police were going to investigate if Andy may have been murdered by the circle. 
• Sara Taylor was Anna and Megan's mother. Her body was found at the foot of the stairs in her home, and there were many rumours about her husband pushing her down the stairs after finding her with another man. Some others think that it was an accident. It seems that Dr Walker killed her as part of the sacrificial offering in the satanic group.
• Eve Finlay-Ryan is Ryan's mother.
• Natalie Finlay-Ryan was Ryan's sister. When Ryan was investigating a serial killer, Natalie came to stay with him, and the killer targeted and killed her.

Characters in this book:

• Amy Llewellyn is the young woman who went missing in 2005 and whose remains are found ten years later in Sycomore Gap, hidding in Hadrian's Wall. Amy was studying medicine, and here she met Keir Edwards, who she had a relationship with, but she fled from him, not liking his violence. Yet, the man he turned to was a psychiatrist, Dr Donovan, who turned out to be a murderer. 
• Colin Hart is the man who finds Amy's remains in Sycamore Gap. He turns out to have more at stake than we first thought. He stalked Clare, the second victim, and the police think he is the killer. He tries to escape the police, but they find him. Yet, he is let go as he seems to have a mental breakdown after his mother's murder, and the police find the real killer. We discover at the end of the book that he did kill his mother, following Dr Keir Stevens' instructions, and he is willing to cooperate with Dr Stevens from now on. 
• Dr Patrick  (Paddy) Donovan is the department psychologist, and Ryan goes to see him following Gregson's orders. Paddy was amiable, but he turns out to be the killer of Amy and Clare among others. After he is finally found out and arrested, on his first night in a cell he kills himself, or that is the official version, but nobody believes that he committed suicide. It seems that someone from the Circle came to the police station and killed him.
• Dr Ann Millington (Millie) is the new forensic anthropologist.
• Mrs Rose Llewellyn is Amy's mother. She used to be a pharmacist, but after her daughter disappeared, she fell into depression.
• Steven Llewellyn is Amy's father.
• Clare Burns (22) is the woman who was killed during the course of the investigation and left on the same spot as Amy's bones. Clare was working in a diner to save her money because she wanted to be a nurse. When she missed the bus after her shift at the diner, she decided to walk home, but it was then that the killer picked her up.
• Ophelia de Lacy-Brown is the local reporter who got wind of the murders first.
• Geraldine hart is Colin's mother. She is murdered by her own son.
• Mathilda Crompton was Clare's landlady and friend.
• Jimmy 'the Manc' Moffa was the owner of the diner where Clare worked. Clare turned down his advances several times. Jimmy comes from a family of criminals.
• Penny Sutherland is the owner of the jeweller's shop where the bracelet that Amy was wearing was sold. Penny says that her son makes the bracelet, and about 2004-05 a man bought ten of those bracelets, Dr Edwards. She lied as the man who bought the bracelets was Dr Donovan. It seems that Penny is part of the Circle as well.