In the novel The Pale Horse, Katherine "Ginger" Corrigan is a young woman with red hair. She is not related to Jim Corrigan. She works as a conservator for the London Galleries.
Portrayals[]
The Pale Horse[]
In the 1997 film The Pale Horse the character is renamed Kate Mercer. Kate is portrayed by actress Jayne Ashbourne.
Agatha Christie's Marple[]
In the 2011 ITV adaptation The Pale Horse (Episode 1, series 5 of Agatha Christie's Marple), “Ginger” is portrayed by Amy Manson.
In this adaptation she knows Thomasina Tuckerton personally as they both work in the same gallery. She nursed "Tommy" when she fell ill and was probably with her when she died. She also confronted Tommy's mother Amelia Tuckerton at Tommy's funeral. At the funeral reception, she saw Tomy's name on the name card of one C. R. Bradley and the address on the Pale Horse Inn on the back. Shethen made her way there to investigate and there met Miss Marple and Mark Easterbrook. When discussing the case with Miss Marple, Ginger said that Tommy was engaged to marry "John". It is never confirmed but her casual manner of referring to him suggests that John is Ginger's brother. This would also make sense of the "Corrigan" on Father Gorman's list. Mrs Tuckerton might have wanted to play it safe by eliminating both members of the soon to be married couple.
Ginger plays much the same role as in the original novel. She is highly proactive in wanting justice done and sought out Miss Marple to enlist her help. Her description of how Tommy was losing her hair as she was dying contributed to Miss Marple's conclusions. Ginger later plays the part of the victim in the "sting" that Miss Marple set up with Mark Easterbrook. In this case, however, Ginger doesn't actually get poisoned as by this time Miss Marple had a rough idea how the poisoning is effected. Suitably forewarned, Ginger is able to play a pivotal role in identifying Paul Osbourne as the man who came to her house disguised as a gas meter reader. Like in the original novel, Ginger pairs off with Mark Easterbrook at the end with characteristic encouragement from Miss Marple. The first name Katherine is not used in the adaptation.
Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie[]
In Le cheval pâle, the French Télévisions film adaptation of the novel for the series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, the parallel character is actually Alice Avril herself, suitably red-headed. Francine Marchal, the Tommy Tuckerton parallel is her neighbour.