A Wanted Man characters

Also known as Reacher

Appears from the start

A former Army military policeman travelling east through Nebraska by hitchhiking. He has a newly broken nose and accepts a ride from three strangers while law enforcement searches the region for two men connected to an apparent killing.

Also known as Sheriff Goodman, Goodman

First appears in chapter 3

The county sheriff who receives an eyewitness account of suspicious activity at a rural pumping station. He begins a regional hunt based on the witness's description of a bright vehicle carrying a pair of formally dressed men.

Appears from the start

The unnamed observer who reports seeing two men in black suits follow a man in a green coat into a rural pumping station. He sees the suited men leave alone in a bright red car before blood emerges from the building.

Also known as King

First appears in chapter 3

The front-seat passenger in the Chevrolet carrying Reacher east. He presents himself as an office worker, takes a directive tone with the other occupants, and gives Reacher his name shortly before the car reaches a police blockage.

Also known as McQueen

First appears in chapter 3

The driver of the Chevrolet in which Reacher has accepted a ride. Dressed like the other occupants in a new denim shirt, he keeps his attention chiefly on the road and identifies himself as traffic slows near several police vehicles.

Also known as Delfuenso

First appears in chapter 3

The rear-seat passenger beside Reacher in the Chevrolet. She appears to be travelling with King and McQueen as another office worker and gives Reacher aspirin for his recently broken nose while the group continues east.

Also known as Sorenson

First appears in chapter 5

An FBI special agent following the emergency call made after Reacher escapes King and McQueen at an Iowa motel. She leaves the Nebraska investigation to meet him alone, aware that the case may soon be taken out of her hands.

First appears in chapter 6

Alan King's reported brother and a possible route to identifying the fugitives. Reacher recalls that Peter served in the Army, prompting Sorenson to request a service-record trace through Fort Sill while their direct leads remain scarce.

Also known as Peter King

First appears in chapter 43

The former soldier identified by a Fort Sill trace as the likely match for Alan King's reported brother. His record places him in Army fire support in 1991 and later in security work in Denver, although the claimed family connection remains unconfirmed.

First appears in chapter 41

Karen Delfuenso's daughter. Goodman withholds the report of her mother's apparent death and arranges for a neighbour to keep her home, but several men abduct Lucy after one claims to know where her mother can be found.

Also known as Perry

First appears in chapter 29

The special agent in charge of the Omaha FBI office and Sorenson's supervisor. After Reacher answers Sorenson's phone and claims to be holding her hostage, Perry directs law enforcement to regard Reacher as highly dangerous and apprehend him.

Also known as Dawson

First appears in chapter 25

A Kansas City FBI special agent assigned to find Reacher and Sorenson after the Omaha office treats Sorenson as a hostage. He searches with Andrew Mitchell and pursues Goodman's patrol car when Reacher uses it to flee.

Also known as Mitchell

First appears in chapter 25

A Kansas City FBI special agent who joins Robert Dawson in the effort to locate Reacher and Sorenson. Their pursuit brings them to Goodman's patrol car, but Reacher exploits a traffic stop to send them in the wrong direction.

First appears in chapter 48

Goodman's chief deputy and acting successor, with experience centered on traffic duties rather than a complex investigation. A traffic stop he conducts becomes the opportunity Reacher uses to reverse the direction of an FBI pursuit.

First appears in chapter 48

Lucy's ten-year-old neighbour and the only available witness to her abduction. She remembers two men taking Lucy after offering information about her mother and recalls a shiny, low-slung car, but cannot identify the men or its colour.

First appears in chapter 25

A man presenting himself as a State Department official, who turns up at the pumping station and later seeks to take Reacher into custody while Reacher and Sorenson are evading the authorities. At this stage his institutional claim and his interest in Reacher define his apparent role.

First appears in chapter 57

A Kansas City FBI agent assigned to a fenced former motel used to isolate people connected with undercover work. Bale helps manage the compound and tells Reacher that he must remain there and keep the operation secret.

First appears in chapter 57

A Kansas City FBI agent working with Bale at the secure compound where Reacher finds Delfuenso, Lucy, and the pumping-station eyewitness. Trapatoni helps enforce the instruction that Reacher must stay and never discuss the operation.

Also known as Lester

First appears in chapter 80

The identity the State Department man presented at the pumping station. Delfuenso establishes that no such official ever worked for either the State Department or the CIA, so the name was a cover and the man who used it was never who he claimed to be.