Character List for Night in the City

The Protagonist and Associates

Sam Monroe—the narrator, a junior lawyer in the New York District Attorney’s office (though not for long); he seems to have been a favorite in a long line of Laura Neilson’s boyfriends

Marilyn Feinstein—Monroe’s supervisor in the Criminal Prosecution Division of the DA’s office

Mike Dalton—an investigator for the DA’s office who may or may not be a friend of Monroe’s

Alfonso—the bartender at Monroe’s favorite bar, Stamms

Abe Silverstein—Monroe’s landlord

George Lemond—Monroe’s boss in security at a department store, a job he had before becoming a lawyer with the DA’s office

Timothy Baldwin—the nephew of a retired private investigator (Everett Scott Baldwin) in Neilson’s address book; he happens to have his uncle’s case files in his basement and lets Monroe go through them

Walt Seaver—a bored graduate student who works as an investigator for Ryan and Monroe

Nicholas Reddy—a journalist for the Herald Tribune who was a former law school instructor of Monroe’s and also a friend of Stephen Key’s

The Victims and Associates

Laura Neilson—a troubled heiress from an old moneyed family; Monroe finds her strangled to death in her penthouse apartment (it turns out her trust owns the building) and becomes the prime suspect in her murder

Carl DeAngelo—the night doorman for Nielson’s building

Albert Guzman—the day doorman for Nielson’s building

Dennis Finch—the superintendent for Neilson’s building

Adella Diaz—Neilson’s housekeeper

Dirk and Elizabeth Neilson—Laura’s parents; wealthy, distant, and not fans of Monroe

Kurt Bell—seemingly the newest in a string of Neilson boyfriends; he met Neilson at a party to which an old college friend of his (Julia Anderson) had brought him

Deborah Jean “DJ” Ryan—a private investigator whose business card Monroe finds in Neilson’s address book; Neilson had hired Ryan to do a report on Monroe’s activities since he and Neilson broke up; also, Ryan’s and Neilson’s mothers were great friends in their 20s, and Laura and DJ went to school together as pre-teens

Delores Stedman—Ryan’s office manager and receptionist

Julia Anderson—an archeology professor and one of the tenants in Neilson’s building; she knew Neilson before moving into the building

Dr. Erika Birkenfield—a now-retired psychotherapist who lived and had offices in Neilson’s building; she was apparently Neilson’s therapist for some time

Jeremy Lancaster—an actor whom Neilson had hired to play her “new boyfriend” when she broke up with Monroe

Susan Cogan—a prostitute who’s being shaken down for protection money by the corrupt cop Johnnie Turner; Monroe convinces her to take part in a sting to take down Turner, but the sting goes wrong and Cogan is killed

The New York Police and Affiliates

Officer Johnnie Turner—a thug officer, the first one Monroe suspects of being corrupt; Monroe later learns that Turner’s family name was originally Tartaglione

Sergeant Patrick Hanrahan—a duty officer in cahoots with Turner

Lieutenant Jack Osborne—the supervisor at the Central Robbery Unit

US Deputy Marshall Eddie Snyder—an investigator with the US Marshalls Service who used to work with the New York police in the Central Robbery Unit

Stephen Watts Key—the new police commissioner who seems to want to weed out police corruption; he had been in Monroe’s law school class

Sergeant Jerome Aloysius “Jerry” O’Reilly—the Hoboken police officer who shows up to investigate the accident that Ryan and Monroe have on their way back to New York from New Jersey; he’s also Dalton’s brother-in-law and, like Dalton, once served in the NYPD Central Robbery Unit with Osborne

Possible Mob Affiliates

Salvatore “Sal” Silano—a one-armed pickpocket who seems to have inside information on mob figures and corrupt police

Richard “Sonny” Carlin—a playboy who’s part of the Carlucci mob family operating out of Hoboken, NJ; he’s also another of Neilson’s former boyfriends

Tony Carlucci—the head of the Carlucci mob family, who was also one of Neilson’s former boyfriends)

Connected with Laura’s New Jersey Past

Allen Quick—a popular high school athlete whom Laura and her friend Jeannie found dead in a remote stone quarry turned swimming hole on the Neilson’s Kittatinny Village Farms property (passed down through Elizabeth (Shafer) Neilson’s prominent family)

Sidney “Sid” Huizinga—the nephew of Lars and Lotte Huizinga, neighbors of Kittatinny Village Farms, who took in many foster children, including Laura’s friend Jeannie

Sofia Huizinga—Sidney’s cousin (Lars and Lotte’s daughter) who “has never been right in the head” but is now living somewhat independently in nearby Stanhope, NJ

Gideon Hollander—the publisher and editor of the Newton Town Crier in Newton, NJ, who fills Ryan and Monroe in on past events, including Quick’s death, and begins his own journalistic investigation into Neilson’s past as it might pertain to her murder

September 2026 Author Video for Agatha Christie

 

September 2026
Agatha Christie
Five Little Pigs

Character List for Five Little Pigs

Those Reopening the Case

Hercule Poirot—the Belgian private detective who’s asked to look into a 16-year-old murder case

Carla Lemarchant—the daughter (birth name Caroline Crale) of convicted murderer Caroline (Spalding) Crale and the painter Amyas Crale; before she marries, she needs to know whether her mother was really guilty

John Rattery—Carla’s intended fiancé

Caroline (Spalding) Crale-convicted of murdering her husband Amyas Crale, she died in prison a year after the trial, but not before sending a letter to her daughter (being raised in Canada by Uncle Simon and Aunt Louise) proclaiming her innocence

Court Authorities Connected to the Trial and Interviewed by Poirot

Sir Montague Depleach—the Counsel for the Defense in the Crale trial

George Mayhew—the nephew of Old George Mayhew, Crale’s solicitor at the time of the trial

Quentin Fogg—junior to Humphrey Rudolph (the prosecutor in Crale trial, now deceased)

Caleb Jonathan—the Crales’s solicitor at the time, now retired; he had not felt he could act for Caroline so had arranged for Old Mayhew to take the case

Alfred Edmunds—the managing clerk for Old Mayhew

Superintendent Hale—the police superintendent overseeing investigation into Amyas Crale’s death; he tells Poirot about findings of Dr. Andrew Fausett, the doctor called when Amyas Crale was found dead, and Inspector Conway, the policeman who led the initial investigation at the scene of Amyas Crale’s death

The “Five Little Pigs” (Poirot’s Characterization)

Philip Blake—aka the Little Pig Who Went to Market—Amyas Crale’s best friend since childhood, a businessman (formerly a stockbroker); he grew up at Handcross Manor, next door to the Crales’s estate, Alderbury

Meredith Blake—aka the Little Pig Who Stayed Home—Philip’s older brother, now a country squire, owner of Handcross Manor, and dabbler in chemistry

Elsa Greer—aka the Little Pig Who Had Roast Beef—now the Lady Dittisham, but then a young woman who had set her sights on Amyas Crale and whom he was painting at the time of his death

Cecilia Williams—aka the Little Pig Who Had None—the governess to Angela Warren at Alderbury

Angela Warren—aka the Little Pig Who Cried “Wee Wee Wee”—Caroline (Spalding) Crale’s much younger half-sister, disfigured as a very young child when an adolescent Caroline threw a paperweight at her, and it shattered and cut her face