This page is for characters introduced in the novel Troubled Blood. For characters who appear across the series see here.
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Margot Bamborough
A young general practitioner who left work one night in 1974 to have dinner with a friend and was never seen again. She was long believed to have been a victim of serial killer Dennis Creed.
- The Ace: Margot is considered to be beautiful, feisty, very clever, and cultured.
- Hero of Another Story: She feels like this by the time Strike and Robin are done investigating her life and death, Particularly since she died due to investigating a serial killer; Margot seems to have been the only person who ever suspected the killer, until Strike and Robin came along.
- Missing Mom: She vanished, presumably a victim of a serial killer, when her daughter was a baby.
- Rags to Riches: Her family was dirt poor after her father became disabled due to an accident but she worked her ass off to become a doctor. She also married into a wealthy family.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She was a cool doctor and feminist who stood up for the underdog, unraveled the truth about Janice's murders, and was a good mother...so of course she had to die.
Dennis Creed
A serial killer and torturer of women. He’s been in prison for a long time and was widely believed to have been the person who killed Margot but he always denied it.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Creed spent decades as a Pariah Prisoner trying to get himself transferred to a mental hospital. Once he got there, he found his freedoms even more restricted, and he's treated as more sick, he starts doing everything he can to try to be declared sane and get sent back to a regular prison.
- Expy: He might be one of Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer, who like Creedy was a Serial Killer and rapist of women and teenagers who also had a genius level IQ and justified his actions in Nietzschean terms, whilst saying that he was no worse than Tony Blair and other politicians.
- Creepy Crossdresser: He wore women's clothing often, especially while abducting people, although unlike most examples it wasn't done out of either an intention to terrify people or out of a genuine statement about his sexuality, but rather to appear less threatening and to avoid having people associate him with the rapist and murderer plaguing the news.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: He’s J. K. Rowling’s way of showing that a homicidal sociopath like Voldemort, although highly intelligent, would most of the time barely function in real life.
- Serial Killer: He kidnapped, raped, tortured, and eventually killed several women in the seventies.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Creed's murders and whether Margot was one of his victims are heavily involved in the plot but he only appears in person for one chapter when Strike visits the prison he's in.
- Villain Has a Point: He's a despicable, irredeemable monster but he raises a valid point when he notes that police don’t do as much to save prostitutes from people like him as they do other women, as though they don’t care or even think they deserve it.
- Wicked Cultured: He quotes or references various works of classical literature to Strike. When Strike’s replies show him to be equally familiar with those works he senses that Creed is frustrated and annoyed at being shown up.
Paul Satchwell
Margot’s hippie artist ex. Strike and Robin have a hard time finding him and Oonagh thinks he’s the person they should be investigating.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He probably witnessed his mother murder his developmentally challenged older sister, although he tries to fall back on the notion that it was just a nightmare.
- Dirty Old Man: He's in his mid-seventies by the time of the novel but still seems to be hitting on Robin a bit, and mainly does paintings that involve rape and bondage of figures from classical mythology.
- Operation: Jealousy: He went out with one of Margaret's employees just to screw with her.
Bill Talbot
The original investigator of Margot’s case. However, he was taken off after he had a breakdown that was caused by an undiagnosed hormonal disorder.
- Defective Detective: He was an intense and imaginative investigator, but one utterly in the middle of a mental breakdown utterly convinced the culprit was Dennis Creed, in addition to being convinced that astrology was the key to the case.
- Infallible Babble: Talbot's last words were about a monstrous woman who he could see standing over him at his bedside, which is heavily implied to be proof that he knew he couldn't trust Janice.
- Posthumous Character: Talbott died well before the events of the novel.
Roy Phipps
Margot’s husband who is a retired hematologist.
- Be All My Sins Remembered: After the case is solved, Robin finds him to be surprisingly frank and introspective in thinking back about all of the signs that he'd missed and such. Even before that he's, shown to have some It's All My Fault feelings about Margot's disappearance.
- Entertainingly Wrong: He's convinced that his wife's friend Oonagh Kennedy hates him and is convinced that he killed her. In fact, Oonagh, while not exactly glowing in her description of Roy, thinks that Paul Satchwell is the suspect Strike should be focusing on.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Roy himself acknowledges that he was angry and suspicious about one meeting Margot had with her ex-boyfriend, which caused a long row that hadn't been resolved before her death and (based on her own experiences with Matthew) Robin suspects would have led to their divorce sooner or later if Margot had lived.
- Irony: While it may have been a deliberate choice on his part because of his condition, multiple characters comment about how he's both a hematologist and has a blood-clotting health condition himself.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is brusque, uncommunicative, and prickly, but he loves his daughter, had nothing to do with Margot's death, and is haunted by an argument they had before her disappearance.
- Parents as People: He does care about his daughter, but not telling her the truth about her mother, plus his remaining frustrations and concerns about the case, cause a lot of friction between them, which only heals as a side effect of Strike's investigation.
Irene Bull-Hickson
One of the secretaries at Margot’s practice.
- Bullying a Dragon: She stole Steve from Janice...a serial killer.
- Gasshole: She lets out an embarrassing fart during her first meeting with Strike, which is described as the result of irritable bowel syndrome. Actually it's the side effects of being poisoned by Janice.
- It's All About Me: Irene is extremely self-absorbed, and misses numerous red flags about Janice as a result.
- Jerkass: She's generally self-centered and rude.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: She's an annoying, self-centred person who repeatedly cheated on her husband and "stole" Janice's crush just because everyone needed to like her more...but Janice is a serial killer.
Janice Beattie
A nurse at the practice.
- Abusive Parents: She frequently poisoned her son Kevin. Margot's suspicion is the main reason she was murdered.
- Battleaxe Nurse: A sociopathic serial killer who masquerades as a good nurse.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems like a kind grandmother and dutiful nurse but is really a Master Poisoner with an awful case of It's All About Me.
- Chekhov's Hobby: She collects the obituaries of people she knows. Later Strike visits her to try and examine her one on Dr. Brenner, And she doesn't have it, because her collection is actually souvenirs of all her victims and Brenner wasn't one of them.
- Fame Through Infamy: Janice admits that she was quite looking forward to being in the papers.
- Funetik Aksent: She has a very thick Cockney accent which is conveyed on page.
- Gruesome Grandparent: She poisoned her young granddaughter on account of thinking she was a bit of a brat.
- Hates Their Parent: Janice is hated by her son Kevin, because she abused him by poisoning him and when he tried to extend an olive branch to her, did the same thing to his "bratty" daughter.
- Lower-Class Lout: Janice grew up in the London slums and grew up to be a vicious and completely remorseless serial killer.
- Manipulative Bitch: Strike eventually realizes she has been lying to him about quite a bit, and refers to her as one of the best actresses and liars he's ever met.
- Offing the Offspring: Attempted, but she knew she couldn't get away with it after Margaret disappeared.
- The Perfect Crime: Turns out to have not only killed Margot Bamborough, but is a Serial Killer with a kill count in double figures stretching back forty years, and until Strike and Robin came along, Bamborough was the only person to ever suspect her. Mostly because she 'just likes watching them die''.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Although their relationship was never serious, to Steve.
- Walking Spoiler: The trope names tell you almost everything you need to know about Janice.
- Would Hurt a Child: Margot grew suspicious of Janice after she examined Janice's young son, who she poisoned several times. The only time she babysat her grandchild unsupervised, the little girl somehow drank bleach, but was saved.
Oonagh Kennedy
Margot’s best friend whom she met during her days at the Playboy Club and whom she was supposed to meet the night she disappeared. She later went on to become a minister.
- Cool Old Lady: She's quite intelligent, insightful and helpful when meeting Strike.
- I Have No Son!: Her mother disowned her for becoming a protestant.
- Playboy Bunny: She and Margot were ones in their youth to pay their bills.
- Trying Not to Cry: During her interview with Strike, although the tears come quickly.
Cynthia Phipps
Anna’s nanny turned stepmother.
- Good Stepmother: Cynthia did a good job raising Anna and cared about her a lot, based on Anna's descriptions.
- Kissing Cousins: It's briefly mentioned that she and Roy are third cousins.
- Marry the Nanny: She was Anna's nanny and fell in love with Roy a few years after Margot vanished.
Brian Tucker
An older man who is convinced one of his daughters was a victim of Creed’s.
- Alliterative Family: Brian named his daughters Louise, Liz, and Lisa. His granddaughter Lauren has an L name as well.
- The Cassandra: Tucker has spent decades studying Creed and coming up with valid theories about him that no one has taken seriously before Strike and Robin. He's correctly figured out that Creed killed his daughter and dumped her body in a well that was later sealed with concrete but can't convince the authorities to search it. He's also convinced that being visited by a celebrity investigator like Strike will make Creed more willing to talk when the authorities think Creed has said all he'll ever say. And when Strike does visit Creed, it turns out Tucker was right on both counts.
- The Determinator: He's spent three decades trying to meet Creed and get him to reveal where his daughters body is, long after the other relatives of unconfirmed Creed victims Neither of whom was actually killed by Creed, unlike his daughter lost interest or died.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The eldest of his three daughters disappeared, likely a victim of Dennis Creed and it's had a long term impact on his life.
- Papa Wolf: Brian continues to search desperately for his daughter Louise around thirty years after her disappearance.
Carl Oakden
Dorothy’s son who wrote a salacious book about Margot that was taken out of print after Roy and Oonagh sued him for libel.
- Con Man: He spent time in jail for swindling old widows.
- Hate Sink: :Janice might be a Serial Killer, but he is a loathsome con artist, misogynist, and all-round terrible person who has never been liked by seemingly anyone in the story.
- Straw Misogynist: Carl is obnoxious, crude man who rails against "gynocentric society" and a "gynocentric court system" and characterizes equal rights for women as misandry. He's also a con artist who scammed old ladies out of their jewelry, and he wrote a scurrilous, libelous book about Margot Bamborough back in the 1980s that was suppressed. He even talks about his own mother in terms which indicate he just saw her as a meal ticket and admits to hitting her back when she physically disciplined him once while saying that only his father had the right to do that.
Saul Morris
A new detective at the agency who is eventually fired for sexually harassing Robin.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: or rather, can't fire you. The main reason Robin doesn't give him the push as soon as she has solid proof of his unprofessional behavior is because the agency is desperately short-handed; not only are they very busy, but during most of the year the book takes place Cormoran is occupied by his Aunt's terminal illness, and on several occasions has to dash off for a week or more on very short notice. The agency can't cover the work they have booked without Morris.
- Double Entendre: works as many of these as possible into his conversations with Robin, much to her disgust and disdain.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: No one but Pat the secretary has anything good to say about him. After he is gone and she learns the truth about him, she admits that abashedly, that she's guilty of judging people based on their looks.
- Get Out!: Subjected to this by Strike after going too far by jumping Robin from behind; no one cares that he claimed it was 'a joke' (justified as it's highly inappropriate workplace behavior anyway, even without his previous actions).
- Handsome Lech: He's described as looking like a young Mel Gibson and puts frequent unwelcome moves on Robin. Including sending her an unsolicited dick pic. When instructed to befriend the personal assistant of "Shifty", Robin and Barclay both suspect that he's taking things too far. Robin later tries her luck and works out in about five minutes that Morris has been sleeping with her (which also means he's been getting reimbursed by the agency expenses for dating her), in direct contrast to Strike's instructions. Including after he's been instructed to stay completely away from the woman.
- Ignored Aesop: in universe. Despite Morris' drunken pleading and whining for Robin to forgive him for sending her an unsolicited dick pic (which he acknowledges should have gotten him fired), Morris continues making unwelcome advances on Robin, culminating his jumping her from behind and her fighting back.
- "Just Joking" Justification: This is Morris's standard fallback whenever he is called out on his lecherous behavior.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Anyone who's ever suffered from unwanted attention from a work colleague, was probably cheering aloud when Robin used her self-defense training on him and then he gets fired after his behavior for so much of the novel.
- Noodle Incident: He's an ex-cop and a divorcee with two kids but the circumstances behind the end of both his police career and marriage are unknown.
Greg Talbott
Bill’s son who gives Strike some of his father’s notes about the case.
- Aesop Collateral Damage: He only tries to help Strike and Robin, and gets his life ruined for it because he had a snuff tape in his possession - which he didn't know.
- Extremely Protective Child: He hates hearing Strike say anything bad about his (insane) father.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He's generally helpful towards Strike but gets questioned by the police over a Snuff Film his father had as evidence and at the end has reporters asking him if he thinks his father was responsible for failing to solve the case.
The Athorns
A mildly developmentally disabled mother and son note who are unwitting pawns in the killer's plan.
- Abuse Mistake: Mrs. Athorn talks about taking off her pants for Dr. Brenner but its eventually revealed that this was just when he was giving her stitches after the birth of her son.
- Disabled Means Helpless: They are utterly dependent on their social worker Clare (actually Janice) and had Margot's body in their sofa for twenty-five years without ever realizing it.
- Madwoman in the Attic: The mother and son are developmentally disabled and rarely if ever leave the second floor room they live in.
- Unwitting Pawn: Janice uses them and their house to hide Margot's body.
Steve Douthwaite
A patient at the clinic whom everyone believed had a crush on Margot back in the day.
- Cosmic Plaything: while he exhibited some jerkass behaviour both in 1974 and since, he really didn't deserve to have his life ruined several times because a Serial Killer thought she was in love with him and proceeded to kill anyone who she saw as coming between them. He wound up changing his identity twice to get away from her as well as the unfair media attention. When you remember how young he was at the start of the whole mess you can't help but feel for him.
- Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: He was a bit of a selfish dick as a teenager-young adult, which caused him to cheat on his girlfriends and Janice, who thought she was in love with him, killed whoever she thought was between them.
- Stalker with a Crush: Subverted. Everyone assumes he was one to Margot, but really he was the victim of this, and was too scared of her to correct everyone's assumptions.
Gloria Conti
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Gloria has achieved this before the book's opening.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: She was the person Margot made an appointment with an abortionist with (using her own name), something Gloria had strong doubts about. In the end she went through with it, to keep Luca from having an inescapable hold over her, although she shows some regret for it in the present.
- Raised by Grandparents: Her grandparents brought her up after her parents and brother died in a house fire.
- Runaway Bride: While still in the fiancee stage, she was this to Luca Ricci with some help from Margot, which is why she disappeared for so long. She got a job as a nanny for a French family and never moved back to the UK.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: She discusses how she wanted to be a mob wife in a romantic sense like in The Godfather not realizing how this really meant getting involve with a potential psychopath.
Luca Ricci
- Alone with the Psycho: He's alone with Robin (who is almost overcome with fear) for a bit when both of them visit his father's hospital room (Luca to drop off a gift, Robin fishing for information) at the same time.
- Domestic Abuse: He repeatedly hit Gloria, and abused her psychologically.
- The Dreaded: Shanker is terrified of him.
- Villain of Another Story: He was an absolute terror to his fiancee Gloria, probably took part in murdering an innocent woman (implied to be suspected Dennis Creed victim Kara Wolfson) for snitching on him and has been a mob member for decades, but he isn't Margot's killer and is never caught by Strike or the police.
Anna Phipps
Margot’s daughter who hires Strike to find out what happened to her mother.
- Straight Gay: Aside from the fact that she's often seen from her wife, she doesn't display any gay stereotypes.
Kim Sullivan
Anna’s wife.
- Straight Gay: Aside from the fact that she's often seen from her wife, she doesn't display any gay stereotypes.
Dinesh Gupta
An elderly doctor of Indian descent who was in practice with Margot when she disappeared.
- Cool Old Guy: While not free of flaws, he's generally friendly and helpful in his old age. Also very proud of his four accomplished daughters; unlike his wife, he has no regrets about not having a son.
- Extreme Doormat: According to Janice, though her word isn't exactly trustworthy he was afraid of confronting Brenner with the accusations he was doing drugs. On the other hand, he didn't have any concrete proof, and he was a young foreigner up against an elite white senior doctor.
- Mr. Exposition: One of the many witnesses visited by Strike, describing the layout and people of the practice he shared with Margot, as well as more details about the day she vanished and then never appearing in person again in the book. While more straightforward and accurate than many of the people Strike interviews, some of the things Gupta tells Strike are false, as he was misled about them, and he also doesn't mention that he and Margot had a little iciness to their own relationship due to opposing views about giving birth control pills to patients.
Amanda White
- Attention Whore: It's strongly implied that the story she tells Strike is made up just for the notoriety it will bring her.
Dr. Joseph Brenner
The third doctor at the clinic who’s since passed away.
- Ambiguous Situation: Given that most of the information about him comes from an unreliable source in Janice, it's debatable how much of what Strike and Robin are told is true. For example, did he really treat the prisoners in the concentration camp once the Allies liberated it? They’re told a story about how Mrs. Athorn took her pants off for him with the implication that it was inappropriate but he was just giving her stitches after she gave birth.
- Child Hater: He doesn't seem to have liked kids and encouraged Dorothy Oakden to hit her son when he misbehaved.
- Combat Medic: According to Janice Brenner was an Army doctor in the second World War who treated concentration camp inmates after helping liberate one of the camps.
- Confirmed Bachelor: He never married and lived with his (also unmarried) sister.
- Dirty Old Man: The oldest of the three doctors, who had a disturbing relationship with a local prostitute.
- Dr. Jerk: Both personally and professionally, he was an unpleasant man and clashed a lot with his partners.
- Straw Misogynist: He's described by Gloria as the most misogynistic man she ever knew, wanting all women to be repressed and mothers. Pretty much every female patient he ever saw found the experience uncomfortable and asked to be transferred to Margot or Gupta.
Wilma Richardson
- Big Secret: She and her family went to a lot of trouble to hide the fact that during the time Margot was kidnapped, Wilma had left town on family business without permission from her employers and had a relative doing the cleaning for her and pretending to be her.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Wilma eventually divorced her abusive husband, became a social worker, and raised several successful children.
- Ethnic Menial Labor: Zigzagged. Wilma was a woman of African ancestry who worked as a cleaner. Later in life though, she went on to become a social worker.
- Posthumous Character: She passed away years before Strike gets involved in the case.
- The Scapegoat: Wilma was accused by Dorothy Oakden, the firms (also long-dead) secretary of several thefts around the office which everyone else agrees were probably committed by Dorothy's son Carl.
Betty Fuller
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: One of Wilma's daughters mentions that she had several grandkids by the time she was forty.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: She's bluntly spoken in her old age.
- Streetwalker: Betty was a prostitute frequented by Dr. Brenner,
who had her pretend to be a coma patient during his "visits".
Theo Lockridge
Margot's final patient, who the police suspected of being a disguised Dennis Creed because of her androgynous appearance and the fact that she never came forward during the investigation.
- The Ghost: Theo is only mentioned and is never encountered by Strike and Robin.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Theo was visiting Margot over complications with her pregnancy and didn't want her abusive family to find out before she could arrange to move in with her boyfriend.
