The City & The City characters

Also known as Tyador

Appears from the start

A senior inspector in Beszel's Extreme Crime Squad and the investigator assigned to an unidentified woman's murder. Methodical and skeptical, he is practiced at noticing his own city while consciously disregarding the people, buildings, and traffic of Ul Qoma that occupy the same physical streets.

Appears from the start

A constable in the Extreme Crime Squad who becomes Borlú's principal colleague on the murder case. Direct, capable, and grounded in local police work, she follows the practical evidence through Beszel while remaining alert to the political risks surrounding any possible breach between the cities.

Appears from the start

The young woman whose body is discovered in Beszel at the start of the investigation. The damage to her face initially prevents identification, making her movements, associations, and reason for being transported across the city central questions in Borlú's case.

Appears from the start

Borlú's superior in the Extreme Crime Squad. He gives Borlú room to pursue an unusual case but remains conscious that any suggestion of an illegal crossing could remove the investigation from ordinary police authority and place everyone involved under Breach's scrutiny.

First appears in chapter 2

A veteran Besz pathologist whose examination of the dead woman helps Borlú separate the circumstances of her death from the elaborate attempt to conceal her identity and route into Beszel.

First appears in chapter 7

A foreign academic whose influential writing about Beszel and Ul Qoma made him an authority on the disputed idea of Orciny, a supposed third city existing in the spaces between them. He later rejected his own theory but remains closely associated with it in the minds of students and conspiracy believers.

First appears in chapter 12

An American student and friend of Mahalia's in Ul Qoma. She shared Mahalia's archaeological circle and knows how strongly Mahalia had become interested in Orciny, making her an important source for Borlú once the investigation crosses legally into Ul Qoma.

First appears in chapter 12

The Ul Qoman senior detective partnered with Borlú when the case moves across the official border. Abrasive at first and fiercely protective of his jurisdiction, he is nonetheless a serious investigator willing to test evidence that unsettles both cities' preferred explanations.

First appears in chapter 24

An operative of Breach who becomes Borlú's guide and custodian after the inspector violates the cities' defining prohibition. He can move through shared space without belonging visibly to either city and teaches Borlú how Breach reads actions that ordinary citizens have trained themselves not to perceive.