Character List for Deadly Animals

The Bonney Family and Related Characters

Ava Bonney—the protagonist; a precocious 14-year-old, fascinated by animal anatomy and decomposition

Veronica Bonney—Ava’s younger sister

Colleen Bonney—Ava and Veronica’s mother, who’s divorced from their father and in a relationship with Trevor Bax

Michael “Mike” Bonney—Ava and Veronica’s father, who’s remarried

Ashleen Scullion—aka Nanny Ash; Ava and Veronica’s grandmother (Colleen’s mother)

Orla Scullion—Nanny Ash’s deceased sister, whom Ava resembles

Trevor Bax—Colleen’s current boyfriend, a mechanic; Ava and Veronica dislike him because he’s sneaky

Luke Bax—Trevor’s 16-year-old son from a previous marriage, whom Ava and Veronica like

John Eades—Ava’s best friend; he goes to a different school than she does

The Police

Detective Sargeant Seth “Skip” Delahaye—a detective with the West Midlands Police, in charge of the cases of the missing boys

Detective Constable Steve Lines—Delahaye’s partner on the cases of the missing boys

Woman Detective Constable Olivia Gibson—a detective who helps with investigations on the cases of the missing boys; she was formerly an investigator for a lawyer who handled lost-heir and inheritance cases

Police Constable Daryl Morgan—a police constable with the West Midlands Police

Detective Inspector Perrin—Delahaye’s boss

Chief Inspector Harry Marshall—Delahaye’s former boss, now retired, who knows some background on the Banlock Farm dogs

Mr. Trent—a forensic scientist and the chief scene-of-the-crime (SOC) officer

Professor Angela Simmons—the police pathologist who does the autopsies

Towler—Simmons’s autopsy assistant

Missing and Murdered Boys

Michael Anthony “Mickey” Grant—a 14-year-old and the first boy to go missing; Ava finds his body near her neighborhood when she goes to check on a dead fox she’s been studying

Bryan “Bry” Shelton—a 6-year-old and the second boy to go missing when he takes the trash out one night; Ava finds his body on the edge of a nearby stream

Gary Clarke—a 9-year-old boy who disappears into the woods during a game of Hunter; the third boy to go missing, his body is found in an abandoned air-raid shelter on an old garden plot

Keith “Trigger” Magaw—a 12-year-old leader of a gang of men and boys who firebomb Bob Aster’s home; later he goes missing from Beacon House, a children’s home where he’s been placed because his alcoholic mother can’t care for him

Other Neighborhood Characters

Nathaniel Marlowe—a 16-year-old schoolmate of Ava’s who works as a delivery boy with a bike and a trailer; he’s also a school prefect

Paul Ballow—a member of a punk band; his girlfriend Lucy “Loops,” their singer

Matty Ballow—Paul’s younger brother and a friend of Ava’s

Maya—a friend of Ava’s who often walks Veronica home from school when Ava’s class is kept in detention

Shawn Temperton—a classmate and friend of Ava’s; he’s the one who throws the Molotov cocktail when a gang of men and boys firebomb Bob Aster’s home

Tom Shelton—a 15-year-old classmate and friend of Ava’s; he’s Bryan Shelton’s older brother

Alan Shelton—Tom and Bryan’s father, who’s convinced Bob Aster is guilty

Kelly Shelton—Tom and Bryan’s mother

Karl Jones—a prefect at Ava’s school who bullies her

Bob “the Nonce” Aster—a known pedophile who lives in the neighborhood

Mrs. Cutter—Aster’s next-door neighbor

Pete Ancona—the neighborhood ice cream man and a suspect

Mack Hardy—owner of Hardy’s Gifts, a store that sells high-end candy

Harry Ca Nab—a character from folklore; the signature on graffiti poetry that begins to appear around the neighborhood after boys start going missing

Banlock Farm

Neville Coleman—an octogenarian who owns the unoccupied Banlock Farm, a former dog-breeding farm; he’s currently in Joseph Sheldon Hospital and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; he has not lived on the farm for at least 10 years

Sophia Coleman—Neville’s deceased wife

Tisephone “Tiss” Coleman—Neville’s deceased daughter; she died in an automobile accident 13 years earlier

Zasha—Coleman’s best dog, also dead

Marlowe & Son Breakers Yard

Nick “Jip” Marlowe—owner of the Marlowe & Son junk yard and Nathaniel’s father

Minty—one of Nick Marlowe’s long-time employees

Tim—one of Nick Marlowe’s long-time employees

Hospital Personnel

Mrs. Brown—the hospital manager at Joseph Sheldon Hospital

Maureen—an attendant at the hospital who seems to be able to manage Neville Coleman’s moods

Dr. Walter Tremblay—a specialist in psychiatric disorders whom Delahaye interviews

February 2026 Author’s Video for Andrey Kurkov

The Silver Bone 

February 2026

Andrey Kurkov

The Silver Bone

Character List for The Silver Bone

Samson’s Family

Samson Theophilovich Kolechko—the protagonist; a 20-something young man who must fend for himself when is father’s murder and political upheaval leaves him orphaned and uncertain; he becomes a police investigator

Verusya Kolechko—Samson’s sister, who died five years earlier

Zinaida Fyodorovna Kolechko—Samson’s mother, who died five years earlier

?? Kolechko—Samson’s (never named) father, beheaded at the beginning of the story; he had been a bookkeeper for a trading company until the previous year

People Who Help Samson

Dr. Nikolay Nikolaevich Vatrukhin—an eye doctor who treats Samson’s severed-ear wound

Sivokon—Samson’s father’s tailor, who later helps him solve his first case

Nadezhda Sigismundovich—a woman that Samson’s yard-sweeper’s widow introduces him to as a potential renter since she has a good job in the Provincial Bureau of Statistics nearby

Trofim Sigismundovich—Nadezhda’s father, about 50 years old

Lyudmila Sigismundovich—Nadezhda’s mother

Alexander Valentinovich Babukin—a former classmate of Samson’s who gives him information about jobs with agencies under “the new regime”

Employees at the Police Station on Tarasivska Street

Nayden—the head of the police station on Tarasivska (near Samson’s flat) who is impressed with Samson’s report-writing ability and gives him a job as police investigator in the newly re-forming police station

Konstantin “Kostya” Pasechny—the officer at the police station who had requisitioned Samson’s father’s desk

Vasyl—an elderly assistant at the police station; he’s spent most of his life as a clerk at the station and has managed to survive the regime change

Sergius “Sergey” Kholodny—a former priest and now with the police

Semyon Glukhov—a soldier and guard at the police station

People Connected to Samson’s First Case

Anton Tsvigun—a Red Army soldier who is billeted in Samson’s flat by Red Army requisition; later, Samson has Anton arrested for theft, creating his first case

Fyodor Bravada—a Red Army soldier who is billeted in Samson’s flat by Red Army requisition; later, Samson has Fyodor arrested for theft, creating his first case

Grigory Sheburshin—aka Grishka Fertichny; a Red Army soldier who’s working with Anton

Golikov—a cobbler whose materials were found among the stolen goods confiscated from Anton and Fyodor

Valerian Sergeyevich Paddomov—Nadezhda’s boss at the Provincial Bureau of Statistics who provides Samson with Kyiv census records

Friedrich Franzevich Balzer—a 52-year-old German tailor whose materials were found among the stolen goods confiscated from Anton and Fyodor

Luc Jeanovich Jacobson—Balzer’s 24-year-old nephew from Belgium who has been living with him and appears to be connected to the silver thefts

Nestor Ivanovich—a former fingerprint expert at the police station, who assists Samson with his case

Princess/Dr. Vera Ignatyevna Gedroits—a maxillofacial surgeon who leads Samson to Dr. Trattner; she advises Samson against getting a prosthetic ear

Dr. Trattner—a surgeon with the Iona Zaitsev’s Jewish Surgical Hospital who remembers a former patient, leading to the solution to Samson’s case