Protagonists {{Infobox character • Cormoran Blue Strike: An ex-
SIB investigator who runs a private detective agency. His biological father, Jonny Rokeby, is a renowned rock star who had an affair with Strike's mother, model and 'super groupie' Leda Strike. Strike is a war veteran who suffered a below-knee amputation while serving in Afghanistan. • Robin Venetia Ellacott; She begins the series as a temporary secretary, but becomes a partner in the detective agency alongside Strike.
Secondary characters • Matthew Cunliffe: Robin's fiancé, later husband, eventually ex-husband. • Lucy: Strike's younger half-sister on his mother's side. • Jonny Rokeby: Strike's famous rock-star father. • Leda Strike: Strike's late mother, a famous model and a rockstar 'supergroupie'. She died of a heroin overdose when Strike was 20. • Charlotte Campbell (Ross): Strike's ex-fiancée, wealthy and mercurial. • Eric Wardle: A detective with the Metropolitan Police. • Roy Carver: A detective with the Metropolitan Police. • Richard Anstis: A detective with the Metropolitan Police. • Linda Ellacott: Robin's mother, first appearing in the second novel. • Alexander 'Al' Rokeby: One of Strike's half-brothers on his father's side. • Shanker: Strike's friend from the times he was living with his mother Leda, a career criminal. • Nick and Ilsa Herbert: Strike's school friends who appear beginning in the second novel. • Ted and Joan Nancarrow: Strike and Lucy's aunt and uncle. • Samuel 'Sam' Barclay: A Scottish subcontractor who begins working with the agency in the fourth novel. • Michelle 'Midge' Greenstreet and Dev Shah: detectives who (along with Barclay) work as subcontractors with the Strike and Ellacott Detective Agency. • Pat Chauncey: Secretary at the Detective Agency. • Ryan Murphy: A detective with the Metropolitan Police who starts dating Robin in the sixth novel. == Television adaptation ==