A Miss Marple Mystery
Characters
• Miss Marple: She trained Gladys in the duties of service in a home or at
a restaurant, and feels responsible when she reads of the murders
where Gladys works.
• Miss Griffith: Head typist at the offices of Rex Fortescue. She calls his
doctor.
• Miss Irene Grosvenor: Competent, beautiful blonde secretary in the of-
fices of Rex Fortescue, his personal secretary.
• Miss Somers: Newest secretary in the office of Rex Fortescue, never able
to know when water is boiling for tea.
Division) who handles the death of Rex Fortescue and the following
two deaths at the Fortescue home. He is quick-thinking, making sure
of the cause of death rapidly, so it is known to be murder.
• Professor Bernsdorff: Pathologist at St Jude's hospital who discerns the
cause of death for Rex.
•
Sergeant3 Hay: Assists Inspector Neele. He finds the discarded jar of
marmalade in the yard.
• Rex Fortescue: Wealthy, unscrupulous businessman in London who
dies at his office. He is over 60 years old, and suspected by his sons of
a serious disease which
impairs4 his functions in the business, Consol-
idated Investments.
• Percival Fortescue:
Eldest5 son of Rex, working with him in the business.
He is more conservative in his investments than his father is. He is
called either Percy or Val and is about 30 years old. He seems to get
what he wants, and has the most to gain from the deaths of his father
and stepmother, but could not have killed the latter.
• Jennifer Fortescue: Wife of Percival for the last three years. They met
when she nursed him back to health from
pneumonia6. She is bored
in her life as a wife, without the focus of professional nursing. She
was
Ruby7 MacKenzie before she married.
• Lancelot Fortescue: Second son of Rex, nickname Lance. The two ar-
gued eleven years earlier, causing a
breach8, but he retains a role in
Consolidated9 Investments as a junior partner. He lives in Kenya,
coming home
apparently10 to reconcile with his father because he is
very happy with Pat, and wants to settle down. He is handsome, at-
tractive, clever and completely unscrupulous.
• Pat Fortescue: Recently married wife of Lance. They met in Kenya,
where she went to start life afresh after losing two husbands, first
one to the war, second one to suicide (Lord Frederick Anstice). She
loves Lance and he loves her. She is
unaware11 of Lance's crimes, be-
lieving the stories he tells of his father sending for him. Miss Marple
advises her to return to her childhood home, if troubles should find
her in her life again.
• Elaine Fortescue: Daughter of Rex, and youngest child, in her twenties.
She is in love and wants to marry, but her father forbids the mar-
riage. Once he dies, she tells her brother she will marry in a month,
and start a school with her husband. She is the only person to shed a
tear for her father's death.
• Gerald Wright: A schoolmaster whom Elaine loves. He comes to the
area when Elaine calls him after her father dies.
• Miss Ramsbottom: Aunt Effie, older sister of Rex's first wife Elvira, the
mother of their children. She is stern regarding moral behaviour, yet
does not call out Lance's lie as to the time he was with her on the day
of his arrival. She spends time with visiting
missionaries12, and is over
70 years old.
• Adele Fortescue: Second wife of Rex, about thirty years younger than
he is, about the age of his sons. They have been married two years.
She is a beautiful woman who loves expensive things, described by
Mary Dove as "a sexy piece".
• Vivien Edward Dubois: Golf and tennis partner, and lover of Mrs For-
tescue. He is the sole heir in her will.
in the face of murder.
• Mrs Crump: Cook for the Fortescue household, who takes
umbrage15 at
the Inspector's suggestion that food she prepared would poison any-
one.
• Mr Crump: Serves as butler, not very well, but he is a package deal with
Mrs Crump.
• Gladys Martin: Parlour maid at Yewtree Lodge, the family
mansion16 of
the Fortescue family, for about two months.
• Albert Evans: The boyfriend of Gladys, who she discusses with Mrs
Crump. He is a false identity used by Lance Fortescue.
• Ellen Curtis: Housemaid at Yewtree Lodge for several years.
• Mrs MacKenzie: Widow of Mr MacKenzie, who found a potential gold
mining field in East Africa and sought capital from Rex, twenty years
before the story opens. Rex left him there to die. Rex still owns the
land, and claimed that it was worthless, as to gold. She is living in
Pinewood private sanatorium. She no longer speaks with her daugh-
ter as she only argues with her daughter.
• Donald and Ruby MacKenzie: The two children of the MacKenzies, ages
9 and 7 when their father died. Their mother raised them to
avenge17
their father's death. Donald was killed early in the Second World
War.