Mr Bradley

In the novel The Pale Horse, Mr C.R. Bradley is the "commission agent" representing the business end of women who lived at The Pale Horse. His office is at 78 Municipal Square Buildings in Birmingham.

Mr Bradley's function as a commission agent is more like that of a bookmaker or a turf accountant. For example, a client would place a bet that someone for example a rich relative or an enemy would still be alive by Christmas next year. Bradley would bet against it and offer odds. If the client lost, he would have to pay up. Bradley is apparently a disbarred lawyer and thus he would assure his clients that this is all legal--after all what could be wrong with making a bet? Bradley is apparently known to Inspector Lejeune at Scotland Yard. Lejeune described Bradley as a "smooth dealer" who knows "every trick and dodge of the legal game" and always manages to stay just on the right side of the line.

Bradley is described as a small dark man with shrewd dark eyes. He "wore a dark business suit and looked the acme of respectability."

Bradley claimed he didn't know anything about how the women at "The Pale Horse" operated--he only looked after the business end. In this claim, he might have been correct.

Agatha Christie's Marple
In the 2010 ITV adaption The Pale Horse (Episode 1, series 5 of Agatha Christie's Marple), Bradley is portrayed by Bill Paterson. Here he operates out of offices in Charing Cross. Miss Marple does the first meeting with him while the second one, where the "bet" and contract is actually made, is attended by Mark Easterbrook.

Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie
In Le cheval pâle, the French Télévisions film adaptation of the novel for the series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, the parallel character is Bonnet.