Sir James Peel Edgerton

In the novel The Secret Adversary, Sir James Peel Edgerton, K.C. is a prominent defence lawyer and politician. He is seen as a potential future Prime Minister. Mr Carter has known him for several years, and respects his intelligence.

Sir James is described as being just "a shade over average height", but he conveys the impression of being a big man. His face is clean-shaven and "exquisitely mobile", and bears an "expression of power and force far beyond the ordinary".

Tuppence had heard that Sir James might one day be Prime Minister. However, he was "known to have refused office in the interests of his profession", and preferred to be a "simple Member for a Scotch constituency".

According to Boris Ivanovitch, Sir James' special hobby is criminology, and it is said that he "can smell a criminal".

Sir James lives at Carlton House Terrace. At the back of the house there is a room furnished as a library, where one wall is "devoted to works on crime and criminology".

Sir James sees Mrs Vandemeyer socially, and calls on her while Tuppence is employed as Mrs Vandemeyer's maid. He gives her a hint, saying that there are "plenty of good places", and that "a change does no harm sometimes".

Tuppence later calls on Sir James, and asks him what he meant by this hint. He tells her that being in Mrs Vandemeyer's service is no place for a young and inexperienced girl.

Tuppence tells Sir James about her and Tommy's involvement in the case of Jane Finn, and of Tommy's disappearance. They devise a plan to get information on Tommy's whereabouts from Mrs Vandemeyer.

Mrs Vandemeyer dies before she can tell them anything about Jane Finn, or the identity of Mr Brown. Sir James is able to arrange everything easily, so that the doctor readily accepts the theory that Mrs Vandemeyer died of an accidental overdose.

Sir James later sends word to Julius and Tommy that Jane Finn has been found, and meets them in Manchester. Tommy finds that Sir James reminds him of Mr Carter, because they both have the same "quality of mind", which is "keen-edged like a rapier". He also observes that Sir James takes in everything, but gives out only what he chooses.

It is revealed that the young woman in Manchester who had claimed to be Jane Finn was not the real one. The real Jane Finn is later found, and Tuppence takes her to Sir James, at Carlton House Terrace.

Jane reveals where she had hidden the papers, and Sir James accompanies her and Tuppence to retrieve them. He removes the papers from the hiding place, and puts them in his pocketbook.

Sir James reveals that he is Mr Brown, the leader of the gang of conspirators who had abducted Jane. He explains that he intends to kill Tuppence and Jane, but is apprehended before he can do this. He commits suicide using poison, which was concealed in the big signet ring on his left hand. The newspapers later report on his sudden death and his career, but the exact nature of his death is not made public.

Mr Carter later reads some excerpts from Sir James' journal, which he says will throw some light on "the extraordinary mentality" of Sir James.

Sir James had written that from an early age, he had realized that he had "exceptional abilities", with brain power that was "greatly above the average". He knew that he was "born to succeed", but his appearance was against him, as he was "quiet and insignificant".

Sir James also wrote that it was the "wastrels" and "failures" who went into crime, and he felt that it was strange that intelligent men had never deliberately embraced a career in crime. He desired power, which could only be obtained by working outside of the law. He wanted to get together and control an organization, overthrow the existing order, and rule.

Sir James thought that a man like himself would attract notice, so he needed a successful career which would mask his true activities, and also needed to cultivate a personality. He made a practice of defending criminals because he believed that he should "look after his own people". He modelled his personality on famous K.C.'s, reproducing their mannerisms.