The Jackal was an assassin, signed to murder president of France, Charles de Gaulle. Using fake identities and killing many people, he fails his mission. Claude Lebel was a professional detective, who was hired to catch the Jackal and prevent him from killing de Gaulle, after many failed attempts, he succeeds. The Jackal was known in the book under many names, such as Alexander Duggan, Per Jensen, Marty Schulberg, Andre Martin and Charles Calthrop. That shows that he was indeed a very clever man, he saw everything coming and thought ahead. He was very assured and he knew, what he was doing, he had it all figured out on his mind. He was, as a human, actually quite nice to some people, but he could not let anyone to interrupt his task, otherwise he killed them. The Jackal had to make many difficult decisions during the hunt, what were a matter of life and death and he always chose the one, which let him live.
näoga ning lapselikult rahuloleva olekuga meest. Agatha Christie jaoks oli mr. P. Osbourne petlikule välimusele vaatamata ohtlik inimene, kellena ta ka "Tuhkru Hobuse" lehekülgedel 50 aastat hiljem taaselustub. Agatha Christie meenutas, et P. kandis taskus surmavat mürki kuraaret, kuna see andis talle võimutunde. Teistest "Tuhkru Hobuse" tegelastest väärivad märkimist mitmes raamatus esinevad Despardid ja Dane Calthrop, samuti missis Ariadne Oliver, kelle algkujuks on autor ise ja kes on varem tuntud raamatust "Avatud kaardid". Küll aga puuduvad selles teosest tuntud tegelased terane miss Marple ja ekstsentriline Poirot. Teatud mõttes on "Tuhkrul Hobusel" ja "Kelladel" sama peategelane, ühel juhul eluvõõras ja naiivne arheoloog Mark Easterbook, teisel juhul Briti 4 salaluurega seotud Colin Lamb