Hannah (The House of Lurking Death)

In the short story The House of Lurking Death, Hannah is the maid of the late Lady Lucy Radclyffe and she is also devoted to her niece Lois Hargreaves who lived at Thurnly Grange. After a number of people died at the Grange, Tommy and Tuppence consider Hannah a plausible suspect. She shows signs of a religious mania as she is constantly quoting passages from the bible about divine vengeance. She says she is "the flail of the Lord" and to beware the "wrath of the Lord whose handmaiden I am."

Tommy found a book in her room, "Materia Medica", turned to a page on the extraction and preparation of ricin, which served to increase his suspicion of her. However Tuppence did not think Hannah would be able to prepare the ricin as she would not know enough.

Portrayals
In LWT's 1983 TV adaptation of The House of Lurking Death, Hannah is given the lastname of MacPherson and is portrayed by Liz Smith. The portrayal is faithful to the original. Here she also gives an explanation for her actions. She tells Tommy and Tuppence that she had seen Miss Logan in the conservatory with the book "Materia Medica", turned to a certain page. She took the book but did not understand what it said but she seemed to think it was connected with the deaths in the house and claimed she had a divine revelation that this was the case.