Character List for A Necessary Evil

Imperial Police Force, Calcutta

Captain Sam Wyndham—the narrator, a captain on the Imperial Police Force (Calcutta); a former WWI soldier and also formerly of Scotland Yard

Sergeant Surendranath “Bunty” Banerjee—aka Surrender-not; a sergeant with the Imperial Police Force (Calcutta) and Wyndham’s partner; he and Wyndham also share lodgings in Calcutta; Banerjee knew Adhir Sai from school in England

Lord Taggart—the Commissioner of Police for the Imperial Police Force (Calcutta); he’s Wyndham and Banerjee’s boss

British Officials

Lord Chelmsford—the Viceroy for British India (Delhi)

Major Dawson—chief of Section H and head of the British military’s intelligence operation in Bengal; Wyndham apparently has some past history with Dawson

Sambalpore Royal Family and Associates

Yuvraj Adhir “Adi” Singh Sai—the Crown Prince of Sambalpore, Orissa, one of the princely states of the British Raj; he is the oldest son of the Maharaja and the Second Maharani

Prince Punit—the 29-year-old middle son of the Maharaja; he is also the son of the Maharaja and the Second Maharani

Prince Alok—the youngest son (18 months old) of the Maharaja; he is the son of the Maharaja and the Third Maharani

Maharaja Rajan Kumar Sai—the 76-year-old maharaja of Sambalpore; he is said to be the fifth richest man in India

Maharani Shubhadra—aka the First Maharani (the Maharaja’s first wife); she is unable to bear children, in keeping with an ancient Sambalpore “curse”

Second Maharani—the Maharaja’s second wife; she’s the mother of Adhir and Punit; she was apparently unhappy and ended up dead not long after threatening to leave Sambalpore to return to Calcutta

Maharani Devika—aka the Third Maharani; she is Prince Alok’s mother

Princess Gitanjali—Adhir’s first wife and widow; she and Adhir have no children

Rupali—one of the Maharaja’s concubines who briefly comes under suspicion in the assassination plot against Adhir

Harish Chandra Davé—the Dewan (prime minister) of Sambalpore

Colonel Shekar Arora—aide-de-camp to the Yuvraj

Major Bhardwaj—the head of the local Sambalpore militia (essentially, the chief of police)

Shreya Bidika—an activist schoolteacher in Sambalpore who has been arrested by Bhardwaj on suspicion of being the assassin of the Yuvraj

Mr. Golding—the chief accountant to the Sambalpore court

Sayeed Ali—the chief of the zenana

British in Sambalpore

Annie Grant—an English woman with whom Wyndham is “smitten”; she knows the royal family of Sambalpore and has been invited to attend Adhir’s funeral; Prince Punit seems taken with her

Sir Ernest Fitzmaurice—a member of the Board of Directors of the Anglo-Indian Diamond Corporation, interested in purchasing Sambalpore’s diamond mines

Derek Carmichael—the British Crown’s representative to the Court of Sambalpore; aka the “Resident”

Emily Carmichael—the Resident’s wife, a revealing gossip especially after a few drinks

Mr. Portelli—a Maltese anthropologist fascinated with the Rath Yatra (the seven-day festival of Lord Jagannath); Sambalpore is central to Jagannath worship

Katherine Pemberley—an English woman that Adhir met in London and became infatuated with; he encouraged her to come to Sambalpore and may have had plans to marry her as his second wife