Déborah Davis

In L'affaire Protheroe, the French adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage for the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, Déborah Davis is the parallel of Estelle Lestrange. Here she is an American celebrity actress. Her arrival in Lille is a major event, especially for fans like Marlène and Ernest Tricard.

In this adaptation, her role is even larger than in the original novel. Like in the original, she is the mother of Alexandre Protheroe's daughter, Lise Protheroe. Davis' original name was "Maryse Finkelstein". She had met Alexandre during the war in France and had given birth to their daughter. However, as she was Jewish, she had to be smuggled out of France to America for her safety while Alexandre retained custody of the child. Subsequently Alexandre held on to custody of Lise but wanted to cut Davis off because he wanted to marry Anne. Like in the original, Davis met Protheroe the day before he died. Alice Avril found a note in Protheroe's pocket with her initials and her hotel room number. Davis admitted to this meeting, and told the police that she had talked about Lise to Protheroe and she threatened to tell Lise who she was.

At the time of Protheroe's death, Davis claimed to be in her hotel room but Marlène broke this alibi because she and other fans were waiting for her at her hotel and saw her coming back late in a highly agitated frame of mind. Challenged about this, Davis admitted to Laurence that she was waiting in a car outside Protheroe's office hoping to meet up with Lise. She waited and heard a gunshot around 7 p.m. and drove away when she saw police cars arriving. Just after the gunshot, she saw a little boy (later identified as Martin) running away from the scene. This testimony proved crucial for Laurence in cracking the case.

Unlike the original, Davis is not suffering from a terminal illness. When she first tells Lise about who she is, Lise does not take it well. However, by the end of the episode, it appears that the two have grown closer.

Déborah Davis was portrayed by actress Laure Marsac.