Phryne's friends

MR TOBIAS BUTLER
Butler by name and butler by passionate avocation. Makes a wonderful cocktail and is rewarded by being allowed to drive the Hispano-Suiza.

MRS BUTLER (AURELIA)
A very experienced and skilful cook who wanted a quiet life after their previous employer passed on to the great banquet in the sky. Throws the occasional pot but likes the household and the situation.

LIN CHUNG
Scion of a very rich and successful Chinese family of silk merchants. Met Phryne in Ruddy Gore when she broke up a street fight. Magician, martial artist, tantric in his sexual talents. Educated at Cambridge.

LI PEN
Bodyguard of the above. The only Shao Lin monk in Australia with a taste for vegemite.

DOROTHY WILLIAMS
Phryne's maid and companion. Met in Cocaine Blues where Phryne took revenge on behalf of Dot. Neat, tidy, kind, Catholic and shrewd. Engaged to Hugh Collins.

HUGH COLLINS
Large, economy-sized policeman with a fierce mother and a talent for detection. First seen in Death at Victoria Dock trying to understand anarchists.

JANE AND RUTH
Adopted daughters. Jane arrived as a lost, mesmerised stray in Murder on the Ballarat Train. Efforts to find out who she was led to Bert and Cec also rescuing Ruth from domestic slavery. Jane is clever and will be a doctor; Ruth is still remembering hunger and will be a cook.

BERT AND CEC
Took Phryne to the Windsor from Station Pier in their old taxi (Cocaine Blues). They are wharfies when there's time and are otherwise employed by Phryne to do the rough work.

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR JOHN ROBINSON: 'call me Jack, everyone else does'
Intelligent officer, obscurely worried by Phryne's methods. An unremarkable man with a hard-to-remember face which has stood him in good stead over the years.

EMBER
Arrived as a soaked and starving kitten just when Jane needed comforting and has stayed to become an elegant black cat who loves mirrors.

MOLLY
Another stray who had her dislocated hip treated by Hugh and somehow never left. Very humble. Eats slippers.