The Affair characters

Also known as Reacher

Appears from the start

A decorated U.S. Army military police major who enters the Pentagon expecting a possible arrest. His untidy appearance is deliberate, and he carefully keeps civilian witnesses nearby while testing whether an apparent security team is waiting for him.

Also known as Frazer

First appears in chapter 2

A colonel assigned to Senate liaison at the Pentagon. Reacher is directed to his office for a scheduled meeting while trying to determine whether the security presence in the building concerns him or is part of an ordinary shift change.

Also known as Garber

First appears in chapter 3

Reacher's commanding officer, who objects to his deliberately unmilitary appearance before explaining that it is needed for an assignment in Mississippi. His instructions begin the inquiry concealed by Reacher's chosen appearance.

Also known as Deveraux

First appears in chapter 8

The sheriff in Carter Crossing and a former Marine Corps member. She works cautiously with Reacher while investigating local murders and reports of armed violence outside Fort Kelham, although she remains suspicious of the Army's explanations.

Also known as Munro

First appears in chapter 5

A military police major conducting the internal inquiry at Fort Kelham. He confines the post's personnel and describes strict controls inside the base, while denying that the Army has established an exclusion zone beyond its fence.

Also known as Neagley

First appears in chapter 22

A trusted former member of Reacher's 110th unit who served as his sergeant at different times. She comes to warn him that the Mississippi assignment may be intended to destroy him, treating the danger as immediate and serious.

Also known as Reed

First appears in chapter 4

The probable owner of a wrecked car tied to Reacher's classified inquiry. Frazer refuses to confirm the ownership directly, leaving both the reason for the car's importance and Riley's connection to the wider events uncertain.

First appears in chapter 5

A murdered Carter Crossing resident whose recent life appears to have begun only three years earlier. She arrived with money, acquired a house and possessions, and left almost no trace of where she had lived or who she had been before.

Also known as Shawna

First appears in chapter 27

A murdered young woman from Carter Crossing who had wanted to leave town. She worked part-time near Brannan's Bar and studied how to become a notary. Her brother says her last boyfriend called himself Reed, looked like a soldier, and drove an old blue Chevrolet.

Also known as Bruce

First appears in chapter 47

Shawna Lindsay's sixteen-year-old brother, who is considering joining the Army. His recollection of Shawna's soldier-like boyfriend and the man's old blue car gives Reacher and Deveraux an important lead involving someone called Reed.

Also known as Rosemary

First appears in chapter 34

One of the women murdered before Janice May Chapman. Reacher and Deveraux consider whether Rosemary, Shawna, and Chapman may all have been pregnant, although that possibility was not tested in the earlier cases.

Also known as Dixon

First appears in chapter 33

A forensic accountant and former colleague from Reacher's 110th unit. Reacher turns to her for an independent check of the proposed financial motive, and she examines whether money connected to Kosovo could explain the Mississippi events.

Also known as Janice May Chapman

First appears in chapter 47

The earlier identity of Janice May Chapman. Records establish that Audrey disappeared from ordinary life three years earlier after an affair with Senator Carlton Riley, then continued in Carter Crossing under the Chapman name.

Also known as Senator Riley

First appears in chapter 7

A United States senator from Missouri and chairman of the Armed Services Committee. His former affair with Audrey Shaw becomes significant when records show that she disappeared from ordinary life and continued under the name Janice May Chapman.

Also known as Lowrey

First appears in chapter 7

A records researcher assisting Reacher. His work resolves the unexplained fingerprint result by connecting Janice May Chapman to the earlier identity Audrey Shaw, then links Shaw's disappearance from ordinary records to Senator Carlton Riley.

Also known as militia

First appears in chapter 52

A civilian militia deployed around Fort Kelham as an unauthorized perimeter force. Its sixty members carry illicit Army weapons and have been ordered to turn civilians away, although they do not know who originated their instructions.

Also known as McClatchy

First appears in chapter 27

Rosemary McClatchy's mother and an important witness. She says Rosemary dated Reed for almost four months, identifies him as the boyfriend who ended the relationship, and reports that her daughter appeared to be pregnant afterward.

First appears in chapter 68

A purported former Marine Corps military police member whose record is used to implicate Deveraux. The file says Bouton dated Paul Evers and was convicted of stealing money from an evidence locker after an inquiry involving Deveraux.

Also known as Evers

First appears in chapter 68

A former Marine Corps military police member and Deveraux's former boyfriend. A newly produced service file says he later had a relationship with Alice Bouton, making his reported history part of the allegations now being used against Deveraux.