A Medal For Murder - Characters

 

SPOILERS!!!

These are the characters in the novel for future reference: 

Regular characters:

• Kate Shackleton (31) is the main character in the series. Kate is a widow. Her husband, Gerald, was a surgeon in the army during the First World War, and he was reported missing. Since nobody has come to tell Kate about the last moments of Gerald, she can't believe he is dead. Yet, he had Gerald declared dead after four years. Kate was a VAD during the war, and after the war she helped some acquaintances to find missing relatives. Now after her friend Tabitha Braithwaite asks her to investigate her father's disappearance, she decides to become a professional investigator. Kate is adopted; her parents couldn't have children, but when Kate was seven, her mother got pregnant and had her twin brothers. Kate's father is a police superintendent, so this curious spirit may come from him. In this book she and Inspector Charles had a night of passion, and this might be the start of a relationship. 
• Inspector Marcus Charles is the Scotland Yard officer that Kate has met through the two cases she has investigated. Charles and Kate become intimate in this book. 
• Jim Sykes is the ex-policeman who Kate hires as her assistant. Sykes is married and has three children.
• Mrs Sugden is Kate's housekeeper.
• Superintendent Hood is Kate's father.
• Virginia Hood is Kate's mother. She would like Kate to marry again or at least, find a man to mak her happy.
• Berta  Pocklington is Kate's aunt. She lives in London and is quite rich.
• Albert Pocklington is Kate's uncle.
• James Pocklington is Kate's cousin
• Hope Pocklington is James's wife
• Malcolm Pocklington is Kate's cousin
• Penelope Pocklington is Malcolm's wife
• Captain Gerald Shackleton was Kate's late husband. He died from a bomb drop, but his body was never recovered. 
• Sookie is the cat that Kate adopted. 
• Irene Sykes (12) is Sykes's daughter
• Thomas Sykes (13) is Sykes's eldest child.

Characters in this novel:

• Philip Moony is the jeweller who hires Kate when he was robbed and a thief took some of the jewels of clients that had to pawn them. 
• Captain Rowland Wolfendale was in the Boer War and ordered his men to follow his orders against the locals in a most cruel way. The captain was a womanizer who enjoyed the company of women. When he and his batman returned to London, he promised the man that he would invest in a tobbaconist's which Lampton wanted to buy. Yet, he had other plans, and when Lampton discovered the truth, he was so angry that he suffocated to death. Then he passed himself up as the captain. And then a woman appears, claiming that the baby she had with him was the captain's, from a relationship with a schoolteacher in the concentration camp in South Africa, and Lampton agreed to raise the girl.
• Sergeant Henry Lampton was Captain Wolfendale's batman and he obeyed him blindly. Actually, it was the captain that received honours which should have been his. Lampton killed the captain when he felt betrayed, and then he passed himself up as the captain, and moved to Harrogate where the captain had inherited a house. The only one who knew the truth was Milner, and he blackmailed him for years. Lampton confessed to killing Milner to protect Lucy, and then he killed himself. 
• Lucy Wolfendale is the girl who has a leading role in the play that Kate goes to see. Lucy wants to be a professional actress and has been accepted at RADA. She hoped that when she turned 21, she would be able to have her inheritance but her grandfather refused. So she pretends to have been kidnapped so that her grandfather can pay a ransom. The reality is that there is no money as Mr Milner blackmailed her grandfather for years.
• Lawrence Milner (45) is the man who is murdered in this book. Kate finds him in a doorway with a knife sticking out. Milner owns a car showroom in the town, and we discover he managed to be rich because he blackmailed Captain Wolfendale for years because he knew that he was not really the captain. The last thing he wanted was to marry Lucy. 
• Rodney Milner is Lawrence's son. He is in love with Alison, and at the end of the book they are to marry soon.
• Alison Hart (21) is Lucy's friend. She and Rodney are in love, and when she discovers that she is pregnant, she talks to Mrs Geert, who tells her that Milner will never allow her son to marry her. So she offers to get rid of the baby by giving her some concoctions and throwing her down the stairs. Kate finds them and persuades Alison to talk to Rodney. 
• Dylan Ashton is a clerk at a estate agent's. Dylan was also in the play, and she helps Lucy in her plan to get the money out of her grandfather. Things take a turning for the worse when he is knocked off his bike and ends up in the infirmary. Dylas turns out to be the killer, and he killed Milner because he was harassing Lucy into marrying him.
• Olivia Geerts is one of the actresses in the play. She is Belgian, and she and Mr Milner had an affair. 
• Meriel Jamieson is Kate's acquaintance and the director of the play. Meriel turns up to be the thief, but Mr Moony decides not to press charges. At the end of the book, Meriel has been offered a good job in a new production.
• Ada Fell (54) used to be the companion of Captain Wolfendale's aunt. When the woman died, she left a provision in her will so that Ada could keep living in the house.
• Dan Root is a tenant in the building that belongs to the captain. He is a watch maker and also has a few roles in the play. Dan turns out to be the son of a woman that the captain tortured during the Boer War. He confesses to Mr Milner's crime because he thinks that Lucy might have killed him, and he is protective of her.
• Burrington Wheatley is a theatre impresario that Meriel wants to impress and at the end of the book, the man offers her a job in a new production.
• Mrs Hart is Alison's mother. 
• Mr Croker is Dylan's boss.
• Owen is the old caretaker in the Milners' car showroom.
• Mrs Gould is the Milners' housekeeper.
• Elizabeth Bindeman is the woman who Captain Wolfendale sent to be incarcerated for giving food to the locals, and she died htere.
• Mrs Marshal is the schoolteacher in the concentration camp who had a relationship with the captain. She is Lucy's mother, but when her father married her off to a vicar, he sent the girl to Captain Wolfesdale.