In the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Johnny Jethroe is a colleague of Margot Bence. He is described as having "exuberant hair and a pink and white face".
When Inspector Craddock goes to Margot's studio off the Tottenham Court Road, she is out, and Johnny receives him. Johnny says that Craddock should have called to make an appointment, and Craddock says that he did call and got no answer. Johnny then remembers that they had taken the receiver off because it disturbed them.
Johnny does a lot of Margot's business arrangements for her, and offers to help Craddock make an appointment. However, when he finds out that Craddock is from the CID, and wants to ask Margot questions in connection with the murder of Heather Badcock, he tells Craddock that she is outside Keats' house at Hampstead Heath, and takes Craddock there in his car.
Johnny also explains to Craddock that they do not pose fashion photographs in the studio anymore, as they want them to seem more natural, and against some unlikely background if possible, such as "a frivolous suit outside a poet's house".
Portrayals[]
In the 1992 BBC adaptation, Johnny Jethore is renamed Chris and this character is played by Reggie Oliver. In this adaptation, it is Detective Sergeant Lake and not Craddock who goes to Margot Bence's studio. Chris does for Lake what Jethroe did in the original novel and takes Lake to where Bence was doing a film shoot outside Keat's house.