In the novel Ordeal by Innocence, Joe Clegg is the second husband of Maureen who a few years earlier was the wife of Jacko Argyle. Joe and Maureen were married a few weeks after Jacko died in prison. Joe is described as a thin-lipped, fair-haired young man. It appears he and Maureen were together at one time before she met and married Jacko.
Joe works as an electrician in Drymouth. Like almost everyone that Arthur Calgary meets, he is not enthusiastic that Jacko had been proven innocent of the murder of Rachel Argyle. To him, it does no good to rake up the past and only sets the neighbours talking again.