Sally Finch

In the novel Hickory Dickory Dock, Sally Finch is an American student resident at Hickory Road. She is in England as part of the Fulbright Program. Her course of study is not stated but she apparently attends lessons at an "Institute" which Akibombo also goes to. It is also likely to be near Regent's Park, as in one passage, she and Akibombo have a lunch break there. Among the spate of unusual events at the hostel, Sally Finch had her evening shoe stolen and later, a costume brooch. Poirot was able to retrieve her evening shoe from a London Transport lost property office having deduced that leaving the shoe on a bus appeared to be the most likely way a thief would dispose of it. Sally was quite rattled by what she considered to be strange or unnatural events at the hostel and wanted to move out. "There's something all wrong about this house," she told Inspector Sharpe and was afraid.

To the fellow lodgers, Sally was held to be far and away the prettiest girl in the house. She was described as an attractive girl with a mop of red hair and eyes that were bright and intelligent. Inspector Sharpe observed that she was a good observer, shrewd and practical. For example, she opined that Celia Austin was killed because she had seen something or knew something but that she probably did not know the significance of what she had seen or knew. This was the same a Poirot's conclusion later.

At the end of the story, Sally suggested to Len Bateson that they should get married and she invited Akibombo to be the best man.

Portrayals
In the 1995 ITV TV film adaptation, Sally Finch was portrayed by Paris Jefferson. There her role is significantly enhanced as she is a secret agent for HM Customs and Excise sent in to live at the hostel by her superior John Casterman to investigate the suspected smuggling activities centre around student hostels in London. At one point she told Casterman that she feared that her safety was being endangered by the murders in the hostel and the fact that Poirot was looking into them. In the event, she blew her cover because she claimed to be studying literature, specialising in the poetry of John Keats. When Poirot quoted her a passage, she praised him for knowing his Keats when in actual fact Poirot had quoted some lines from Shelley. Because this adaptation sets the events in the 1930s, an anachronism is created when Sally claims to be on a Fulbright scholarship because this only came into being after 1947. In the adaptation, Sally's place of study is University College, London. There are several spectacular shots of the location including the library.

There is no parallel character of Sally Finch in Pension Vanilos, the TV film adaptation by France Télévisions.