The Dupin Mysteries characters

Also known as C. Auguste Dupin

Appears from the start

An impoverished Parisian gentleman with an exceptional gift for analysis. He shares secluded rooms with the narrator and delights in reconstructing other people's thoughts from small observations. When the police are baffled by the killings in the Rue Morgue, he investigates independently, relying on physical evidence and close reasoning rather than official procedure.

Appears from the start

Dupin's unnamed friend, housemate, and admiring chronicler. He meets Dupin in Paris through their shared interest in a rare book and accompanies him through all three investigations, asking the questions that allow Dupin to explain his methods.

Appears from the start

An elderly woman found dead in her locked house in the Rue Morgue. She and her daughter had withdrawn a large sum from the bank shortly before the killings, but the money remains at the scene.

Appears from the start

Madame L'Espanaye's daughter and the second victim of the apparently impossible Rue Morgue murders. Her body is discovered forced high into the chimney of the locked room.

Appears from the start

A bank clerk who escorted Madame L'Espanaye home with a withdrawal. The police arrest him despite the lack of a convincing motive, giving Dupin an innocent suspect to clear.

Appears from the start

A French sailor whose lost animal and unusual ribbon provide Dupin with a route to the truth behind the Rue Morgue murders. Dupin draws him to the apartment with a newspaper advertisement and assures him that he is not accused of the killings.

First appears in chapter 2

A young Parisian woman whose disappearance and death become Dupin's second major inquiry. Once employed at a perfume shop, she had previously vanished for several days and returned without a full public explanation.

First appears in chapter 2

Marie Rogêt's fiancé, who becomes entangled in the speculation surrounding her death. His movements and his distressed response to the discovery are among the facts Dupin separates from the newspapers' more sensational claims.

Also known as G—

First appears in chapter 3

The Prefect of the Paris police, energetic and experienced but committed to exhaustive physical searches. He consults Dupin when ordinary methods fail and tends to dismiss solutions that depend on understanding how an adversary thinks.

Also known as D—

First appears in chapter 3

A powerful minister, poet, and mathematician who steals a compromising letter from a royal lady while she is unable to object. Knowing how the police search, he keeps leverage over her and remains confident that the letter cannot be recovered.

First appears in chapter 3

A royal woman whose politically dangerous letter is taken in her presence by Minister D—. She commissions the Prefect to recover it without publicity, since open action would expose the secret the letter represents.