Characters
EMMA KORD (30s)
A gifted British-Iranian pianist turned forensic music investigator. Her synaesthesia and flawless musical memory make her sharper than anyone else in the game. But her gifts are also a curse, keeping the line between reality and delusion just beats apart. Dependent on pills — not the kind from a doctor — and haunted by fractured sounds from her past, Emma must control the very powers that make her brilliant — before they destroy her.
SIR ALEXANDER MUNRO (50s)
A national treasure and composer of Childhood, the most successful musical of all time. Charismatic, urbane and adored by the press, Sir Alec is the storyteller everyone wants to believe. But behind the apparent genius lies a man guarding secrets that could cost him everything.
CATHERINE MUNRO (50s)
Once a starving dancer, Catherine reinvented herself as a ruthless show business executive and the wife of Sir Alec. She delights in controlling the young hopefuls who beg to join her record label. It’s all about power, and Catherine has no intention of surrendering a single piece of her hard-fought empire.
GEORGE FARRELL (50s)
The mercurial George was Emma’s college piano teacher. Killed in a car crash fifteen years ago, his voice resurfaces on Arnold’s tape, reawakening Emma’s past.
STANLEY ARNOLD (70s)
Once tipped for greatness, Arnold is now a forgotten figure in the music world. Paranoid and eccentric, his legacy hides truths that others would prefer remain lost.
MAY LEE (50s)
Once Stanley Arnold’s most gifted student, May seems badly out of luck for someone with such talent. But perhaps her true gift has been survival — protecting her daughter Lucy while keeping the promises that bind her to Childhood’s darkest secrets.
LUCY LEE (20s)
Lucy has grown up with lies. Fierce and determined, she takes up Stanley Arnold’s cause — but her pursuit of the truth risks repeating the cycle of vengeance that wounded her mother, May.
VIV LYNCH (30s)
A tenacious media lawyer, Viv is pragmatic, tough and fiercely loyal — especially to Emma. Exasperated by her friend’s recklessness, she is drawn deeper into Emma’s dangerous world than she ever intended.
ANNABEL COLLINS (20s)
A singer in the London cast of Childhood, Annabel is determined to become a star — whatever the cost.
DC DERRICK HARRIS (20s)
A graduate-track detective with little patience for Emma Kord's off-book techniques, Harris sees the world in straight lines and hard evidence.
PAUL SHELDRAKE (40s)
The Munrows’ shadowy lawyer, Sheldrake knows every secret worth hiding. Cold and calculating, he enforces their power while protecting his own interests.
NASRIN KORD (70s)
Emma’s mother, a classical violinist who once moved in Stanley Arnold’s circle. Before fleeing to the north of England as a refugee, she played in the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. Now, despite Emma’s concern about her fragile health, Nasrin continues to work.