Content Warning: The following section of the guide discusses sexual assault, murder, and capital punishment.

Nellie Coker is the book’s primary character, and her nightclub empire drives the plot. The actions of other characters, including Maddox, Oakes, Frobisher, and Azzopardi, revolve around her since they are motivated by a desire to dismantle Nellie’s business. Nellie’s character speaks to many of the book’s central themes. First, as a single mother and a successful business owner, Nellie draws attention to Expectations and Subversions of Gender Roles. However, Nelle’s character also speaks to The Corruption and Dangerous Nature of Ambition. She gets her big break through an immoral and unlawful act, the theft of her dead landlady’s jewels (which turn out to have been Azzopardi’s). This act comes back to haunt her, as Azzopardi returns to demand compensation. Atkinson therefore uses the conventions of the picaresque genre in Nellie’s characterization, since Nellie is depicted as an “immoral” yet appealing character in a corrupt society.

Another allusion to the picaresque genre is that Nellie does not ultimately change her ways. For example, she never expresses guilt about the theft. However, she is haunted by guilt in other forms.