Never Go Back characters

Appears from the start

A former Army military policeman newly arrived in Virginia. When two men posing as legal advisers threaten to keep attacking him unless he leaves, he disables them and stays to learn who sent them.

First appears in chapter 2

The major commanding the 110th MP Special Unit, a post Reacher once held. Reacher has travelled to Virginia to meet her after speaking with her from South Dakota, but she is missing from her office when he arrives.

First appears in chapter 4

A lieutenant colonel found at Susan Turner's desk when Reacher visits the 110th. His presence makes Turner's unexplained absence immediately more troubling.

First appears in chapter 3

A dead man at the center of a revived military case. Morgan says medical findings connect his death to a beating sixteen years earlier and identifies Reacher as the alleged assailant, a charge Reacher denies.

First appears in chapter 3

A living woman whom Morgan links to a separate matter involving Reacher. At this stage, Morgan withholds the substance of that issue and says someone else will address it.

First appears in chapter 24

One of two soldiers who served under Turner in Afghanistan and were reported dead on a remote trail. Turner believes the effort to frame her may be connected to what the pair tried to report.

First appears in chapter 24

One of Turner's soldiers, reported killed alongside Natty Weeks in Afghanistan. Their deaths become the fugitives' best lead to understanding why Turner was removed and targeted.

Also known as Sam

First appears in chapter 10

Candace Dayton's fourteen-year-old daughter and the subject of a claim that Reacher may be her father. Reacher decides he must reach Los Angeles and establish whether the claim is true.

Also known as Sergeant Leach

First appears in chapter 6

A sergeant serving under Turner in the 110th. She discreetly searches for the original record sent by Turner's soldiers from Afghanistan, despite the danger of assisting two wanted fugitives.

Also known as Major Sullivan

First appears in chapter 7

An Army attorney available to assist Reacher's defense. Reacher is given her private contact details as the search for him and Turner intensifies.

Also known as Captain Edmonds

First appears in chapter 9

An Army attorney asked to obtain the full military-intelligence file on AM3435. Her access may turn the missing fragment of Turner's Afghanistan report into a usable lead.

Also known as Warrant Officer Espin

First appears in chapter 14

The warrant officer leading the 75th MP team assigned to find Reacher and Turner. His search adds military investigators to the other forces pursuing the fugitives.

First appears in chapter 42

A civilian who permits Susan Turner to use her driver's license and payment card for travel. Her voluntary help gives Turner a cover identity but may expose Vega to danger.

First appears in chapter 45

One of two men who follow Reacher and Turner onto a flight to Los Angeles. He carries an apparently ordinary civilian identity and no military identification, but behaves like a disciplined operative.

First appears in chapter 46

A second apparent civilian who boards the fugitives' Los Angeles flight. Like his companion, he carries a carefully prepared identity and conceals the result when Reacher incapacitates him.

Also known as AM3435

First appears in chapter 48

An Afghan man identified by the code found in the missing communications interval. Seven years earlier he was suspected of buying American grenades and reselling them to the Taliban, though the allegation was never proved.

First appears in chapter 8

A sex worker and aspiring actor whom Reacher hires for a social-engineering task. She persuades a law-office receptionist to disclose Candace Dayton's address without injuring or coercing her.

First appears in chapter 54

A member of the hostile Fort Bragg team who follows Turner on Mulholland Drive. He confronts her with a gun, and she kills him while defending herself.

First appears in chapter 9

A Fort Bragg staff sergeant who leads the hostile field team. Recognizable by injuries from Taliban captivity, he remains the principal operative threatening Reacher, Turner, and Samantha.

First appears in chapter 55

The disbarred former attorney who prepared Juan Rodriguez's old affidavit. The document and its aftermath have caused lasting damage to his life, and he refuses to help when Reacher and Turner approach him.

First appears in chapter 58

The officer who investigated the historical accusation against Reacher. His inquiry found that other men committed the beating and that the affidavit blaming Reacher had been forced.

First appears in chapter 58

The senior officer who backed Don Granger's investigation of the old allegation against Reacher.

First appears in chapter 10

An Army attorney whose beating appears to have been arranged by Morgan. The attack becomes another link between Morgan and the effort to control the cases against Reacher and Turner.

First appears in chapter 60

A senior Army personnel official whose decisions repeatedly moved Morgan through Afghanistan-related logistics posts and ultimately into the 110th. Those assignments make him a focus of Reacher and Turner's investigation.

First appears in chapter 64

The Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence and a close longtime associate of Crew Scully. Reacher suspects that he may be the conspirator using the name Romeo, but the identification is not yet established.

First appears in chapter 11

The label used by an unidentified participant who communicates with Romeo. Phone tracing places both devices together at Dove Cottage, but no confirmed personal identity emerges.