In The Thirteen Problems, Dr Pender is an elderly clergyman of the local parish of St. Mary Mead and a member of the first Tuesday Night Club. Just as Joyce Lemprière felt that as an artist she had knocked about among all sorts and conditions of people and Miss Marple felt that all sorts of all sorts of very painful and distressing things happened in villages, Dr Pender felt he had something to offer in the way of unsolved mysteries and crimes. Clergymen hear things and knew a side of the human character "which is a closed book to the outside world".
Dr Pender narrated the story of The Idol House of Astarte.
