The Third Policeman characters

Appears from the start

The unnamed narrator, a scholar devoted to the eccentric philosopher de Selby. Orphaned young and fitted with a wooden leg, he lets John Divney manage the family farm while he works on an immense study of de Selby's ideas. His need for money to publish the book draws him into the robbery and killing of old Mathers.

Appears from the start

The calculating man who takes charge of the narrator's farm and public house. Divney proposes robbing Mathers and becomes the narrator's partner in the crime, but afterward he alone knows what happened to the missing cashbox.

Appears from the start

An elderly local man believed to carry a valuable cashbox. The narrator and Divney waylay him on a lonely road, but the aftermath of the attack proves far stranger than the robbery they planned.

Appears from the start

A theorist whose bizarre writings dominate the narrator's intellectual life. The narrator is preparing an immense critical study of de Selby and treats both the philosopher's ideas and the disputes of his commentators with complete scholarly seriousness.

First appears in chapter 2

An inward voice who begins speaking to the narrator in Mathers's house. Calling himself Joe, he acts as a wary second perspective, questioning dangers and conclusions that the narrator might otherwise accept.

Also known as Sergeant Pluck

First appears in chapter 3

The senior officer at an isolated police barracks. Pluck responds to the narrator's request for help with questions about bicycles and an elaborate theory that people and bicycles exchange atoms through prolonged contact.

First appears in chapter 4

Pluck's fellow policeman, an inventor and craftsman whose demonstrations obey a private, unsettling logic. His handmade objects include a succession of ever smaller containers, each apparently finer than the last.

First appears in chapter 9

A one-legged local man already known to the police. His hostility toward the barracks and his physical resemblance to the narrator in one important respect make him an unexpected possible source of aid.

First appears in chapter 10

The elusive third member of the local police force. Fox operates apart from Pluck and MacCruiskeen and has his own knowledge of the underground machinery and the extraordinary substance called omnium.