The Long Good-Bye characters

Appears from the start

A Los Angeles private detective who forms an unusual friendship with a scarred, self-destructive stranger. Marlowe's personal code makes him loyal long after the friendship becomes inconvenient, and his refusal to accept official explanations draws him into two wealthy households determined to keep their scandals private.

Appears from the start

A courteous, badly scarred man whom Marlowe first finds drunk and abandoned outside an expensive club. Terry has little money and a damaged sense of his own worth, but his manners and flashes of humor interest Marlowe. His former wife belongs to the immensely wealthy Potter family.

Appears from the start

Terry Lennox's wealthy, striking former wife, whose family fortune protects her from most consequences. Sylvia treats Terry carelessly but remains bound to him through a relationship neither seems able to leave entirely behind.

First appears in chapter 7

Sylvia's father, an immensely wealthy newspaper owner accustomed to controlling information and insulating his family from scrutiny. Potter's representatives make clear that privacy matters to him more than an outsider's search for a satisfying account.

First appears in chapter 10

A homicide detective and long-standing police contact of Marlowe's. Ohls is practical about the pressures surrounding the Lennox case and offers limited help without pretending that law enforcement is independent of wealth or politics.

First appears in chapter 11

The police captain who interrogates Marlowe after Terry's flight. Gregorius uses confinement, threats, and violence to force cooperation, regarding Marlowe's loyalty to a suspected murderer as deliberate obstruction.

First appears in chapter 17

A powerful criminal figure who knew Terry during his years in Mexico. Menendez warns Marlowe to stop examining Terry's supposed death and presents himself as a loyal friend capable of enforcing that request.

First appears in chapter 20

A New York publisher seeking discreet help for one of his successful authors. Spencer hires Marlowe to find Roger Wade, whose disappearances and drinking threaten both his safety and his work.

First appears in chapter 21

A commercially successful novelist whose severe alcoholism has left him unreliable, ashamed, and prone to vanishing. Roger is intelligent enough to recognize the damage around him, but drinking repeatedly defeats his efforts to face it.

First appears in chapter 21

Roger Wade's elegant wife, who asks for help managing his disappearances and destructive drinking. Eileen appears controlled and vulnerable beside Roger's volatility, and she recognizes Terry Lennox's name from a painful part of her wartime past.

First appears in chapter 22

The Wades' Chilean houseman, fiercely protective of Eileen and openly suspicious of Marlowe. Candy manages the household during Roger's drunken episodes and resents outsiders who assume they understand what happens there.

First appears in chapter 24

The operator of a remote treatment ranch where Roger Wade is found after disappearing. Verringer claims therapeutic authority over his patients, but money and control are closely mixed in his dealings with Wade.

First appears in chapter 30

Sylvia Lennox's sister and the wife of a successful physician. Linda is more direct and independent than the other members of the Potter circle, and she questions the convenient official end of Terry's case.

First appears in chapter 31

Linda's wealthy, socially assured husband. Dr Loring dislikes Marlowe's involvement with the Potter family and treats both Linda's independence and Roger Wade's alcoholism with cold professional confidence.