The Puppet Masters characters

Appears from the start

A field operative for a secret American intelligence organization. He narrates the investigation of a reported flying-saucer landing in Iowa, approaching the assignment as a practiced undercover agent even when the evidence stops fitting any ordinary hoax.

Appears from the start

A highly capable operative assigned to the Iowa investigation with Sam. She adopts the team's improvised family cover easily and brings calm observation to a mission based on confusing, contradictory reports.

Appears from the start

The demanding chief of Sam and Mary's covert agency. Known to his operatives only by a title, he personally joins the first investigation and directs the team with terse authority.

First appears in chapter 3

Alien organisms able to fasten themselves to human bodies and override their hosts' choices. Clothing helps them remain concealed, allowing an apparently ordinary community to be controlled from within.

First appears in chapter 8

The American president whom the agents must convince that the invasion is real. He has to weigh extraordinary testimony against the disruption and loss of civil privacy that effective detection would require.