Leonard Etherington

In the novel Curtain, Mr Leonard Etherington was an unpleasant man who was, among other things, a drug addict with serious alcohol problems. Leonard had a young wife who was desperate about him. He later died of food poisoning--Mrs Leonard Etherington was charged for murder. The young woman was also suspected of infidelity, but claimed she had only a deep sympathy for the man she was accused of having an affair with. The jury's sympathy was with Mrs Etherington, which was later acquitted. The public opinion, though, was that she had murdered her husband. Etherington's widow later took an overdose of Veronal, but it is unclear whether she had killed herself or she had accidentally mistaken the dose.

Both Mr and Mrs Etherington are only mentioned in the novel and do not appear.