Maria – The cook at the Balletto house.Guido Arrellio – Creasy's friend and the owner of the Pensione Splendide in Naples.Pinta Balletto – The child of the Balletto family.Rika Balletto – The wife of the Balletto family.After Creasy confronts him and exposes him to Rika, Ettore commits suicide in his eighth floor office. He arranged a kidnapping of Pinta to commit an insurance scam: he set up an insurance policy at Lloyd's of London for two billion lire. Ettore Balletto – The husband of the Balletto family and the owner of Balletto Mills, one of Italy's largest producers of knitted silk fabric.He imagined that Creasy would look like Robert Mitchum. Quinnell based Creasy on several people he knew from Africa and Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. He served in the French Foreign Legion before becoming Pinta's bodyguard. Creasy originated from the US state of Tennessee. Creasy – The protagonist of the novel.Finally, after killing the Don, a severely wounded Creasy is taken to hospital, but pronounced dead: a funeral is held and Creasy is thought to be gone.īut, unknown to all, Creasy was in fact alive and makes it back to Gozo where he is reunited with Nadia. After Creasy reveals to Rika that Ettore allowed Pinta to be kidnapped for the insurance money, Ettore commits suicide. From low-level enforcers to the capos in Milan and Rome, as well as all the way to the head Don in Sicily, Creasy cuts through their organisation, killing anyone who had something even remotely to do with Pinta's kidnapping. Soon enough, he is fit and leaves for Marseille where he stocks up on supplies, weapons and ammunition: from there he travels back to Italy and then the war between Creasy and the Mafia begins. But, to his surprise, he also discovers he has another reason to live after his suicidal mission against the Mafia: he finds himself accepted by and admiring the Gozitans, as well as falling in love with Nadia, the daughter of his host. While on Gozo, Creasy trains for several months, getting into shape and re-familiarizing himself with weaponry. Told by Guido he can stay with in-laws on the island of Gozo in Malta, Creasy accepts the offer, to train for his new mission. Out of hospital, Creasy returns to Guido's pensione and outlines his plans for revenge against the men who took away the girl who convinced him it was all right to live again: anyone who was involved, or profited from it, all the way to the top of the Mafia. Soon enough, Guido returns with the news that the exchange went bad and Pinta was found dead in a car, suffocated on her own vomit. But Creasy's life is shattered when Pinta is kidnapped by the Mafia, despite his efforts to protect her.Ĭreasy is wounded during the kidnapping and as he lies in a hospital bed Guido keeps him informed of the goings on. They become friends and he replaces her parents in their absences, giving her advice, guidance and help with her competition running: he is even spurred to give up his drinking and return to his former physical prowess.
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But slowly, she chips away at his seemingly impenetrable exterior, his defences drop, and he opens up to her. To keep him occupied, his companion Guido suggests that Creasy should get a job and offers to set him up as a bodyguard: thus he is hired by the Ballettos, where he meets his charge, Pinta.Ĭreasy barely tolerates the precocious child and her pestering questions about him and his life. After some searching, he finally settles for an American named Creasy.Ĭreasy, once purposeful and lethal who served in the French Foreign Legion, has become a burnt-out alcoholic. When Rika Balletto urges her husband Ettore, a wealthy textiles producer living in Milan, to hire a bodyguard for their daughter Pinta, he is doubtful but agrees. In Italy, wealthy families often hire bodyguards to protect family members from the threat of kidnapping.