Merciless - Characters

 

SPOILERS!!!

 

These are the characters in the series for future reference

Regular characters

• DI Kate Fletcher (46) is the main character. Kate is a detective who  grew up in Thorne. After years away, she returned in the last book. Kate is divorced and has a son, Ben, but they don't have a close relationship. In this book she meets an oncologist and they start seeing each other. 
• DC Dan Hollis is one of the detectives in Kate's unit. He and Kate work closely together.  
• DC Sam Cooper is a detective in Kate's unit. Sam is the expert in computers. In this book she was having problems with her partner, Abbie, because Abbie didn't want to live in the houseboat. In the end they make up and agree to find a place to live in winter and they will live in the houseboat in the summer.
• DC Barratt is an officer in Kate's unit.
• DCI Raymond is Kate's boss. 
• DS Steve O'Connor is a detective in Kate's team. O'Connor has connections with criminals, which provide Kate with very useful information.
• Kailissa is the police pathologist. He is quite grumpy and particular in his ways, so he hates when the police rush him for results or when they ask him questions.
• Abbie is Sam Cooper's partner. 
• Nick Tsappis is the oncologist that Kate meets through the case, and they start seeing each other. 
• Mark Evans is the desk sergeant. 
• Karen Siddon (43) is Kate's sister. 
• Garry is Kate's exhusband. He is now living with a girlfriend who is half Kate's age and is expecting a baby. 
• Ben is Kate's son, and after the divorce he drifted from him. He is now studying at Sheffield University. 

Characters in this novel:

• Caroline Lambert is the woman who accuses herself of killing her father for compassion as he had cancer and was suffering. We discover that the father was not sick, and she came to make him suffer because he killed Caroline's sister, Jeanette, years ago. Caroline manipulates a nurse to provide her with drugs, and when the nurse, Maddie, wants to go to the police for what she has done, Caroline kills her. At the end of the book Caroline faces Kate and almost kills her, but Sam and her partner Abbie turn up and save Kate.
• Dennis Lambert is Caroline's father. Little by little we discover that he hasn't been a good man. He ill-treated his eldest daughter and killed her. Then he forced Caroline to help him bury the girl.
• Brenda Powley is a neighbour of Dennis's but it seems that she and Dennis have a relationship. When Caroline turns up, Brenda is suspicious, especially when Caroline treats her unkindly and even prevents her from seeing Dennis. 
• Jeanette Lambert was Caroline's eldest sister. Jeanette went missing when she was fifteen after she went out with friends. The truth is that her father killed her. 
• Maddie Cox is the woman whose body Sam finds in the lock. Maddie is anurse who treated Dennis for his cancer and that is how she met Caroline. Maddie had problems with gambling so that is why she goes to Gamblers Anonymous. Caroline uses this to offer money that Maddie needs for a debt she has from her time when she gambled. Caroline bribes her to give her prescriptions for morphine and other drugs. When Maddie tells her that they haven't acted well and she wants to go to the police, Caroline kills her. 
• Julie Wilkinson was Jeanette's friend, and she helped Caroline when she told her about her intentions to make her father suffer. And she hid her when Caroline ran away from the police. 
• Ethan Cox is Maddie's son. When his mother is missing from home for two days, he goes to the police, thinking that she might be the woman who was found in the lock. 
• Colin REad is Dennis's consultant, but Kate can't talk to him because he is on holiday. 
• Gemma McGlynn is a staff nurse in the hospital where Maddie worked.
• DS Morrison is of the East Yorkshire Police. He is not very cooperative when Caroline's car is found.