Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock is the main protagonist of the stories, although the stories are told from Watson’s point of view. Holmes is a detective with very sharp observation and deduction skills. He is popular throughout England for his stories that Watson publishes. Holmes is also a bit arrogant and has strange mannerisms. He uses a various number of drugs and has a wide collection of information written in bits and pieces. He also likes to play with people who are sceptic of his talent, but he has very firm morals and its entirely due to his conscience that he doesn’t turns to crime while he has the talent.
John Watson
Watson is the narrator is the most stories. He is timely chided by Holmes for ‘seeing and not observing’. Watson is a doctor and has served in Afghanistan as a soldier. He is more social than Holmes, and a better story-writer. Holmes relies on Watson as a loyal assistant and likes to discuss theories with him. Watson also acts as a security guard in some of their cases where danger is suspected. All in all, Watson is the shadow which follows Holmes everywhere, rarely disturbing but noting all that follows.
Count Negretto Sylvius
A cunning game-shot and sportsman whom Holmes describes as a shark. He is dangerous and always on prowl. He has a cruel face and flamboyant style. He is familiar with Holmes’ methods of deductions and so is always on his guard. He is also distrustful of others and so carries the stolen diamond with him at all times.
Sam Merton
Merton is a boxer who does the Count’s legwork. He is strong and faithful to the Count, but with a slow intellect. He is not capable of making decisions without the Count.
Lord Cantlemere
He is a thin frail man who is in charge of finding the stolen diamond. He is sceptic of Holmes’ methods and has no faith in him. Holmes pranks him placing the recovered diamond in his pockets which turns him into a believer.
Neil Gibson
Also known as the Gold King, he is a ruthless and cunning businessman originating from America. He has a vast wealth and property. He is also violent and aggressive. After the failure of his first marriage, he falls in love with the governess of his kids.
Maria Pinto
She is the Brazilian wife of Neil Gibson. She was a great beauty in her youth, but she is past her prime. She is devoted to her husband despite his abusive ways and insanely jealous of the governess whom the husband loves. She is understood to be mentally unstable.
Grace Dunbar
She is the governess in the Gibson household. She is beautiful and is considerate. She refuses the advances of Gibson as per her morals, and bears the jealousy of his wife, but doesn’t goes against her conscience. When she realises her hold over Gibson, she tries to make him more considerate in his business.
Marlow Bates
Gibson’s manager, who has bear the brunt of Gibson for too long and has developed into a man of low confidence and no self-esteem. He is bitter towards his master and looks like to be on the verge of mental breakdown.
Professor Presbury
He is a popular physiologist. He is said to be a great lecturer and a man of sharp wit. He is sixty years of age when he falls in love with the daughter daughter of a colleague, who rejects him for his age. He is strong and has a sharp memory.
Edith Presbury
She is Professor Presbury’s daughter. She is beautiful and engaged to his secretary, Trevor Bennet. She disapproves him of fancying a much younger girl.
Trevor Bennet
He is secretary to Professor Presbury, but has the looks of a shy student. He is engaged to his daughter and lives in the same household. He is privy to all his correspondence. He is the first one to note irregularities is professor’s behaviour.
Robert Ferguson
A friend of Watson from his schooling days. He used to be a sportsman and had a lithe body but has now gotten out of shape. He has a son, Jack form his previous marriage and a Peruvian second wife whom he suspects to be a vampire.
Wife of Robert Ferguson
Unnamed, the second wife of Robert Ferguson is said to be devoted him and her child. However, she has a keen dislike for his first son, Jack, whom she had abused previously. After being discovered by her husband while sucking the blood of her baby, she confines herself to her room and is taken by delirious throes of anxiety.
Jack
He is the invalid son of Ferguson. He is jealous of his step-brother, a beautiful and healthy child. He is also cunning and scheming. He tests the poison on dog before administering it to the baby.
John Garrideb/Killer Evans
He is a dangerous murderer who has been disguising as an American lawyer so as to get Nathan Garrideb out of his house. He is confident and feels that the police should feel grateful to him for murdering a proficient forger.
Nathan Garrideb
A man of many interests, he has converted his house into a museum devoted to multiple subjects. He has a number of artefacts which he keeps most carefully and so avoids leaving the house. He is hopeful to add more things to his collection from the money he hopes to get out of Alexander Garridebs will.
Baron Adelbert Gruner
A handsome and cunning man who made his money by marrying rich women and then killing them. The Baron is said to have deep contacts in the criminal world. He is lusty and records the women he has wronged in a black diary. He is also a connoisseur and collector of Chinese pottery.
Violet de Merville
She is the heiress of a large estate and fiancé of Baron Gruner. Gruner has her enraptured with his shows of affection and seemingly honesty about his past experiences with women. She refuses to listen to anyone who would speak harshly about Gruner.
James Damery
He is the client who appoints Holmes on the behalf of a mysterious client to make Violet de Merville change her mind about Gruner. He has great faith in Holmes’ powers.
Shinwell Johnson
He is a contact of Holmes who knows much about the criminal world of London. Holmes and he exchange notes often on the events and incidents from various spheres of people in London.
Kitty Winter
She is a find of Shinwell Johnson. She is possibly a criminal or a prostitute, but she claims to have been ill-used by Gruner and is ready to testify against him. She is so spiteful of Gruner that she attacks him with vitriol destroying his features, as she was escaping from his house.
Steve Dixie
He is a negro, muscleman working for Barney Stockdale, a gang leader. He is said to be strong and scary-looking but in reality, he is a coward and is often chided by Holmes for his savage manners.
Mary Maberley
She is an elderly lady, mother of a former acquaintance of Holmes. She is lonely and had been living an uneventful life, but dreams of travelling around the world.
Susan
She is the wife of Barney Stockdale, and is employed by Mrs. Maberley as a maid, a position she abuses as spies on Maberley.
Isadora Klein
A rich temptress, born Italian and widow of a German, Isadora is a cunning figure. She lives a promiscuous life and is set to marry a Duke for his money. She is wary of the writings Doglas Maberley has written and plans to have them stolen.
James M. Dodd
He is a soldier who has served in South Africa, and is a close friend of Godfrey Emsworth. He is sturdy and brave fellow with a keen eye. He is not scared easily and reacts reflexively. He also has a subtle humour.
Godfrey Emsworth- A
A friend and soldier in Dodd’s regiment, he is heavily wounded and wanders into a leper hospital and spends night sleeping in one of their beds, risking him of the infection of leprosy. After his return to London, he is kept in utter secrecy so as no one can discover his disease.
Harold Stackhurst
He is a friendly neighbour to Holmes after retirement and the principal of a coaching institute. He is a great swimmer and scholar.
Fitzroy McPherson
He is found dead in mysterious circumstances near the beach where Holmes and men from Stackhurst’s college often swim. He is a scholar in science, is liked by most and is very friendly. His affair with Maud Bellamy was the talk of town.
Ian Murdoch
A teacher at the Stackhurst’s college. He is a pioneer in mathematics and is of aggressive nature. He is thought to be hateful of McPherson as they had a violent altercation a long time before.
Josh Amberley
A rich but miser man, Amberley had made huge money by selling paints, married to girl old enough to be his daughter and retired to a home in country. He has a bitter attitude and is despondent as his wife eloped with a doctor taking everything of a value form his house.
Ray Ernest
He is a doctor who often plays games of chess with Amberley. He falls in love with Amberley’s wife and plans to elope with him. He is killed by Amberley and before dying, tries to write a final message on Amberley’s wall.
Mr. Barker
He is a rival detective and is employed by Ernest’s family to get to know what happened to Ernest. He is of sturdy build and wears grey-tinted sunglasses.
McKinnon
A police officer who is sceptical of Holmes’ work and gives him no credit after the case of Amberley is solved.
Mrs. Merrilow
She is an elderly woman, landlady to a mysterious but disfigured woman, Eugenia Ronder. She is driven by money but is of a gentle nature.
Eugenia Ronder
She used to perform in a circus along with her abusive husband, and tries to kill him with the help of her lover. While trying to set the lion free, she is attacked by the lion and is disfigured for the life and her lover deserts her. She has suicidal tendencies and wished to confess to someone of her sinful acts.
John Mason
A horse-trainer in the stables of Shoscombe Old Place. He is a stern-looking man and is utterly loyal to Beatrice Falder and yet scared of her brother, Robert Ferguson.
Robert Ferguson
He is a jockey who is heavily indebted. He is said to be jealous and violent. He is said to be fighting with Beatrice Falder, his invalide sister on whom he is financially dependent.
