Salvation of a Saint characters

Appears from the start

A celebrated patchwork artist and teacher married to Yoshitaka Mashiba. Composed and observant, she has built an elegant home around her husband's exacting expectations, including his belief that marriage exists to produce children.

Appears from the start

Ayane's wealthy businessman husband. He treats marriage as an agreement contingent on having a child and tells Ayane that he wants a divorce when their first anniversary arrives without a pregnancy.

First appears in chapter 2

Ayane's younger assistant and pupil in patchwork. She moves easily through the Mashibas' home and social circle and is drawn into the investigation when Yoshitaka dies while Ayane is away.

First appears in chapter 3

A Tokyo homicide detective assigned to Yoshitaka's death. Experienced and intuitive, he is strongly impressed by Ayane, which makes his reading of her behavior more sympathetic than that of his junior colleague.

First appears in chapter 3

A younger detective working with Kusanagi. Careful about domestic details and unwilling to accept the most convenient theory, she suspects that Ayane's apparent impossibility as a murderer may itself be central to the case.

First appears in chapter 3

The senior officer supervising the Mashiba investigation. He balances competing theories within the team and presses for an explanation that accounts for both the poison and the opportunity to administer it.

First appears in chapter 10

A physicist at Imperial University whom Kusanagi consults on cases involving apparently impossible mechanisms. Known to the police as Detective Galileo, he is more interested in whether a theory can work than in preserving anyone's preferred suspect.

First appears in chapter 6

A friend and business associate of Yoshitaka who socialized with both Mashibas. His account of the marriage and its place within their circle helps the detectives reconstruct the victim's relationships.

First appears in chapter 6

Tatsuhiko's wife and Ayane's friend. She offers the investigators another view of the Mashiba marriage and of Ayane's conduct before the fatal weekend.