Jasper Bancroft

Jasper Bancroft is a spy. He is very much of the old school, with a tendency to lurk around in pubs and cafés, watching people and doing the Times crossword - or rather, filling in the Times crossword with random words that don't fit. He's never seen the point of crosswords, apart from the fact that they enable him to blend into the background. If the truth were told, he feels as if he's come down in the world lately, as working for Helen Matheson on a mission in Burnham-on-Sea is a far cry from the old days of dropping secret dossiers into bins in Gorky Park.

And it's possible that his sloppy approach to tradecraft was what ultimately got him killed, rescuing Tom Winscombe from being stranded out at sea after diving down to the wreck of the Channellia rig. Very nice of him to help out, of course, but he rather underestimated the ruthlessness of his opponents. Still he probably didn't feel anything. Death by harpoon through the neck is probably fairly quick.