May 22, 2026
May 9, 2026
Character List for The Quiet Tenant
Aidan Thomas & “Family”
Aidan Thomas—outwardly, a recent widower and “everyone’s favorite handyman and general good guy around town”
Cecilia Thomas—aka “Cece”; Aidan’s 13-year-old daughter
“Rachel”—“the woman in the shed” and “the woman in the house” (also “the woman without a number”); a 5-year-long “quiet tenant” of Aidan’s, whom he sometimes tries of pass off as his cousin; her real name is May Mitchell
The Amandine Crew
Emily—bartender and owner of Amandine, a restaurant she inherited from her father; she has a crush on Aidan
Eric—a waiter at Amandine and a close childhood friend and roommate of Emily’s
Yuwanda—a waitress at Amandine and a close childhood friend and roommate of Emily’s
Cora—a waitress at Amandine
Nick—the chef at Amandine
The Numbers
Number One—the first woman he killed, when he was in college
Number Two—the second woman he killed, when he was engaged
Number Three—the third woman he killed, when his wife was pregnant
Number Four—the fourth woman he killed, when his daughter had just taken her first steps
Number Five—the fifth woman he killed, when his wife was first diagnosed with cancer
Number Six—the missing number in the chapter titles; presumably the woman he let live and held captive for 5 years, “Rachel”
Number Seven—the sixth woman he killed, when he thought his wife was dying
Number Eight—the seventh woman he killed, when he knew his wife was dying
Number Nine—the last woman he killed; she is Melissa, the most recent missing woman, mentioned at the beginning of the story
Townspeople
Judge Byrne—elected judge (for past 30 years) and owner of a small house he rents to Aidan when Aidan’s in-laws kick him and Cecilia out of the house they own, after their daughter dies
April 30, 2026
April 12, 2026
Character List for The Alienist
The Team
John Schuyler Moore—the narrator; a thirty-something journalist for The New York Times
Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—an alienist (that is, a psychiatrist) and friend of Moore’s; they’ve known each other since college where Kreizler studied under *Professor William James
Sara Howard—an old friend of Moore’s who’s working as a secretary at Police Headquarters but has ambitions to be a police detective; [her ambition is more than a decade ahead of the times since the first woman police officer (not even a detective), Alice Stebbins Wells, isn’t hired until 1910 (by the L.A.P.D.)]
Sergeant Marcus Isaacson—a newly hired detective with a specialty in criminal science, backed up by his previous studies in law and his work for Pinkertons
Detective Sergeant Lucius Isaacson—Marcus’s brother and a newly hired detective with a specialty in forensic medicine, drawing on his medical education and his work for Pinkertons
The Police and Government Officials
*Theodore Roosevelt—head of the Board of Commissioners of New York City’s Police Department (1895–97)
*Colonel William Lafayette Strong—New York City mayor (1895–97) who appointed Roosevelt as police commissioner in his largely unsuccessful war against graft
Detective Sergeant Patrick Connor—a detective who works at Police Headquarters where Roosevelt has his office
Sergeant Flynn—a police sergeant from the 15th Precinct who might have too-close ties to Biff Ellison
*Thomas Byrnes—the creator and former head of the police’s Division of Detectives, who had retired when Roosevelt was appointed but was still influential in some circles; he popularized the practice of “rogues’ gallery”
Moore’s Acquaintances & Family
*Jacob “Jake” Riis—a photographer and journalist at the rival New York Tribune
*Joseph Lincoln “Link” Steffens—an investigative journalist and one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era (early 20th Century)
Harriet—Moore’s grandmother’s housekeeper
Kreizler’s Household
Stevie “The Stovepipe” Taggert—a reformed juvenile delinquent who works as a driver and errand boy for Kreizler
Cyrus Montrose—a former patient of Kreizler’s who now works for him as a sort of bodyguard and driver
Mary Palmer—a former patient of Kreizler’s with motor aphasia and agraphia (unable to speak and write), who now works as Kreizler’s housekeeper
The Victims
Giorgio Santorelli—aka “Gloria”; a 13-year-old Italian immigrant who sometimes works as a cross-dressing prostitute out of Biff Ellison’s Paresis Hall
Benjamin and Sofia Zweig—a brother and sister found murdered 3 years earlier whose murders seem similar to the Santorelli murder; Kreizler has their bodies exhumed for forensic study as one of his first acts in investigating the Santorelli case
Ali ibn-Ghazi—aka “Fatima”; a 14-year-old Syrian immigrant who’s been sold by his father to Scotch Ann at the Golden Rule
Joseph—a 10-year-old boy prostitute from the Golden Rule who gives Moore information about a man that ibn-Ghazi trusted and called “the saint”
Ernst Lohmann—a 14-year-old German immigrant who works as a cross-dressing prostitute out of the Black and Tan
Others Connected with Bars and Brothels
*James T. “Biff” Ellison—owns Paresis Hall, one of three or four saloons in New York’s Lower East Side that catered to prostitution
*Paul Kelly—works for Ellison and oversees operations at Paresis Hall
*Jack McManus—aka “Eat ‘Em Up”; a former prizefighter who is currently Paul Kelly’s “enforcer”
Scotch Ann—runs the Golden Rule, a basement brothel of cross-dressing boy prostitutes
*Frank Stephenson—owns the Black and Tan, another of the saloons catering to prostitution
Members of New York Establishment and Society
*Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan—Roman Catholic archbishop of New York who seems to be playing a part in thwarting investigations into the “boy murders”; [historically, he was rebuked by the Vatican (1887) for neglecting the spiritual needs of Italian immigrants]
*Bishop Henry Codman Potter—bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York who seems to be playing a part in thwarting investigations into the “boy murders”; [historically, he was a champion of the working class and labor unions]
*Anthony Comstock—a “special agent” of the United States Postal Service in New York [and author of the 1873 U.S. Comstock Act, which makes it a crime to deliver “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” material by U.S. mail]
*John Pierpont Morgan—a financier and investment banker with outsized local influence; [historically, he assisted the government in plans that averted several financial crises]
Others Interviewed by Team During Investigation
*Jesse Harding Pomeroy—an inmate (since the age of 14) at Sing Sing Prison for the murder and torture of children; [note that the historical Pomeroy was never incarcerated at Sing Sing]
*Franz Boas—a friend of Kreizler’s and the assistant curator of ethnography at the American Museum of Natural History in New York
*Dr. Clark Wissler—an anthropologist/ethnologist and assistant to Boas; [historically, he was not hired at AMNH until almost a decade after the events of this book, after which he eventually replaced Boas]
Hobart Weaver—a friend of Moore’s who works in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.; he helps Moore locate the file that identifies Corporal John Beecham, a military officer who had been a patient at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in D.C.
Adam Dury—a farmer in Newton, MA, originally from New Paltz, NY; his parents, the Reverend and Mrs. Victor Dury, had been murdered years before in New Paltz, and his younger brother, Japheth, had supposedly been kidnapped by Indians and never found
Captain Frederick Miller—an Army officer serving at Fort Yates, ND; a decade earlier, he’d discharged Corporal Beecham to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital following an incident in Chicago
Charles H. Murray—superintendent of the Census Bureau in New York
Other Historic Figures
*Herman Webster Mudgett—aka “Dr. H. H. Holmes”; a serial killer on death row in Philadelphia (and reported executed in Chapter 26) whom Moore’s grandmother worries about; [find an account of Dr. H. H. Holmes’s murder spree, coinciding with the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition in Chicago, in Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City (2003)]
* Indicates real, historic persons; for interesting real-life backgrounds, check out their biographies in Wikipedia
March 12, 2026
March 7, 2026
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 10, 2026
February 2026 Author’s Video for Andrey Kurkov
The Silver Bone
February 2026
Andrey Kurkov
The Silver Bone
February 6, 2026
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
January 13, 2026
January 2026 Author’s Video for Louise Penny
A World of Curiosities
January 2026
Louise Penny
A World of Curiosities
January 9, 2026
Character List for A World of Curiosities
Sûreté du Québec
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache—the almost 60-year-old head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec; he’s also a resident of Three Pines
Jean-Guy Beauvoir—Gamache’s second in command; at the time of the Clotilde Arsenault homicide (over a decade earlier), Gamache had plucked him out of a local sûreté detachment where he was languishing in the evidence locker; now, Gamache is his father-in-law as well as his boss
Inspector Linda Chernin—lead investigator reporting to Gamache on the Clotilde Arsenault murder case
Captain Hardye Moel—one of Gamache’s agents trained in grief counseling and experienced in working with children; she appears as part of the Clotilde Arsenault murder case; by the time of the hidden-room case, she has been promoted to captain, has received her PhD, and has become head of the counseling division of the Sûreté du Québec and Gamache’s therapist
Agent Amelia Choquet—one of Gamache’s agents; he had rejected and then approved her application to the Sûreté Academy at the beginning of her career with the Surete; in the hidden-room case, Gamache calls on her to protect his wife
Isabelle Lacoste—Sûreté agent who shares second-in-command duties with Jean-Guy Beauvoir; during most of the hidden-room case, she is vacationing in Manitou
Gamache Family
Reine-Marie Gamache—Armand Gamache’s wife; she’s retired as the chief archivist at the Bibliothèque et Archives Natíonale du Québec
Annie (Gamache) Beauvoir—Gamache’s daughter, married to Jean-Guy Beauvoir
Honoré Beauvoir—Annie and Jean-Guy’s 5-year-old son
Idola Beauvoir—Annie and Jean-Guy’s baby daughter
Daniel Gamache—Gamache’s son, married to Roslyn with daughters Florence and Zora (Zora is named after Gamache’s mother)
Henri, Fred, and Gracie—the Gamaches’ dogs
Residents of Three Pines
Myrna Landers—a retired psychologist and the owner of a new and used bookshop with a loft; she and Billy Williams live in the building, and Harriet often stays there, too; the hidden room is adjacent to the loft
Harriet Landers—Myrna’s niece, a civil engineering student in her early 20s who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks; at the École Polyechnique graduation, she receives the graduate scholarship given annually in honor of the victims of the “Montréal Massacre”
Billy Williams—Myrna’s partner; his ancestor Pierre Stone appears to have been the stonemason who bricked off the hidden room around 1862
Ruth Zardo—an elderly poet with historical knowledge of the Three Pines area; she has a pet duck named Rosa
Clara Morrow—a local (but well-known) painter
Olivier—owner of local B&B
Gabri—Olivier’s partner and chef at the local bistro
Reverend Robert Mongeau—the elderly minister (around 70 years old) at St. Thomas’s (the village church); he’s only recently graduated from divinity school and been assigned to St. Thomas’s
Sylvie Mongeau—the reverend’s wife, dying from cancer
Claude Boisfranc—the recently hired caretaker for St. Thomas’s, who lives in the church basement
Characters from the Clotilde Arsenault Case
Clotilde Arsenault—36-year-old murder victim found by edge of a lake after having been reported missing two days earlier by her children, Fiona and Sam Arsenault
Fiona Arsenault—the then 13-year-old daughter of Clotilde Arsenault; she was charged and pled guilty to Clotilde’s murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison; now an adult, she is on parole on the weekends during which she lives with the Gamaches; while in prison, she has completed her mechanical engineering degree from the École Polyechnique remotely and, through Gamache’s intercession, has been allowed to attend the graduation ceremony
Sam Arsenault—the then 10-year-old son of Clotilde Aresenault; he’s had a troubled childhood and adolescence spent in foster care and delinquency; he reappears for Fiona’s graduation and moves into the B&B in Three Pines
Captain Alexandre Dagenais—rogue head of the local sûreté detachment where Clotilde was murdered; he’s revealed to be running a crooked cop shop
Dr. Mignon—a doctor from the nearest large town, who serves as the coroner for the Clotilde murder
Other Characters from the Hidden-Room Case
Nathalie Provost—an engineering student who survived the “Montréal Massacre” (December 6, 1989) at the École Polyechnique in which 14 female engineering students were killed and 13 wounded, including Provost; she has gone on to become a spokesperson for the victims and their families
Anne Lemarque—a 17th Century Montréal woman accused by the church of being a witch who owned a grimoire (a book of spells) and subsequently banished from Montréal; Ruth believes Lemarque and other banished women founded Three Pines
Monsieur Godin—a 70-ish man who had purchased Billy Williams’s ancestral home (built by Pierre Stone) years earlier
Patricia Godin—Godin’s recently deceased wife whose death was ruled suicide by the local sûreté detachment but reclassified as murder after the Sûreté du Québec reviews the autopsy report; Billy thought she had forwarded an old letter written by Pierre Stone to him, but Monsieur Godin declares the forwarding address and accompanying note are not her hand-writing
Dr. Mirlande Louissaint—curator with the Museé des beaux arts in Montréal who identifies the painting found in the hidden room as a modified copy of the 1670 painting “The Paston Treasure” (aka “A World of Curiosities”)
Thérèse Brunel—a retired senior officer of the Sûreté du Québec, now living in Vancouver; she had been the senior curator at the Museé before joining the Sûreté
Jérôme Brunel—Thérèse’s husband and retired emergency room doctor whose hobby and passion is breaking codes
Lillian Virginia Mountweazel—a mysterious woman who appears in several contexts; Reine-Marie Gamache points out that this name is an obvious pseudonym since it was a code often used by print publishers to catch copyright infringements
John Fleming—a 71-year-old psychopath and serial killer, sentenced to life in prison
Cecil Clarke—a 70ish-year-old docent at the Norwich Castle Museum in Norfolk, UK, where the real painting “The Paston Treasure” is exhibited
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