Characters / Detectives United

The recurring cast of Detectives United is a small but fairly tight-knit group of... well, eccentrics.

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The Detectives United

The heroes as a group

• Colorful Theme Naming: Anna Gray, Agent Brown, and James Blackthorne.
• Enemy Mine: The original trio got their start because they had a common enemy in the Collector.
• Fire-Forged Friends: By the end of the first game, they've become this to one another. It's particularly highlighted in the third game, when the Big Bad throws them all into different points in history; after they've gotten their bearings on where (and when) they are and what's happening, both Anna and Brown are shown to be worrying about the other two, and in the bonus chapter, they're all three very concerned for each other. The fourth game makes it even more obvious, as James and Anna basically drop everything in order to search for the missing Brown.
  • Family of Choice: They seem to be moving in this direction as of the third game; the fourth pretty much cements it. The Grim Tales series lends credence to the idea as well.
• Occult Detective: What they all do, both together and separately.
• Two Guys and a Girl
• Vague Age: During the first four games, there's no indication of how old any of them are. Only the dossiers found in Brown's office at the beginning of Deadly Debt reveal some of the answers.

Anna Gray

Anna Gray

Voiced by: Lori Caulfield

A beautiful and intelligent woman, Anna is a member of the supernaturally inclined Gray family from the Grim Tales series.

• Action Mom: She has a daughter named Alice, to whom she is absolutely devoted (not that you would know it from this series).
• Affectionate Nickname: She occasionally refers to Agent Brown and James as "the boys."
• The Ageless: As Agent Brown puts it in his own notes in the fourth game, she either doesn't age at all or ages very slowly. (See Older Than They Look, below.)
• Alliterative Family: Anna's mother was named Anastasia; she names her own daughter Alice. In Grim Tales it's eventually revealed that her mother also had a sister named Alexandra.
• Always Identical Twins: It hasn't been mentioned in this series as yet, but Grim Tales players know that she has an identical twin sister, Luisa. Unlike Anna, Luisa is a Muggle Born of Mages; she takes after their mother, and has no known magical powers.
• Animal Motif: According to one puzzle in Grim Tales: Trace in Time, the Gray family emblem is a fox.
• Big Sister Instinct: It's less pronounced than Brown's Big Brother Instinct, but she clearly cares about both of her partners and is shown to worry for them when they're in danger. She comments on it in Grim Tales: Trace in Time when finding a newspaper article about the events of Phantoms of the Past, remarking about how worried she and James had been for Agent Brown.
• The Clan: She's a member of the sprawling Gray family, which has dozens of members in various generations and is difficult to accurately chart - not least because most of them are actually related to her sister Luisa's husband John, whose surname is also Gray, and not to Anna herself. It even has a whole separate branch known as the McGrays, one of whom owns the property Agent Brown visits in the future of Timeless Voyage. (He finds a picture of Anna and her daughter Alice while in the house, confirming the connection.)
• Dead Person Conversation: She has one every time her father Richard decides to weigh in on the situation.
• Distress Ball: She's the first one to pick this up in the series, when the Collector traps her in the past during the events of Origins, and it happens on a couple of other occasions too. That said, she's never depicted as being a Damsel in Distress.
• Famed In-Story: When she first meets 'the boys,' Agent Brown calls her "the famous Anna Gray." Of course, it stands to reason that the Mystery Trackers would be aware of someone with her abilities, so it may be just that she's famous among their members.
• Full-Name Basis: The games' interface does this fairly often.
• Happily Married: Grim Tales shows her to be this with her husband Dorian, though as noted below he has yet to be mentioned in this series.
• In the Blood: The Detectives United games don't make it as apparent as the Grim Tales series does, but Anna's time-traveling abilities are hereditary; her father Richard and daughter Alice both have similar talents, as do a couple of her distant relations.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Her name is Anna Gray. However, for some reason, the achievements screens in the first two games both have her photo with the caption "Anna Grey."
• It's Personal: Anna gets involved with the case in Origins on her own, instead of at the Queen's request, because the Collector has stolen an artifact from her.
• Missing Mom: Her mother, Anastasia, died when Anna was quite young, and is rarely mentioned in the Grim Tales games; the 21st installment, Echo of the Past, finally delves into her history.
  • Title Drop: It's revealed in that game that the series is called Grim Tales because Grim was Anastasia's maiden name.
• Older Than They Look: One of the 'case cards' in the third game reveals that she performed a ritual at some point, which allows her to retain a youthful appearance indefinitely. ^note Grim Tales players will recognize this as being part of the plot of the installment The Heir. As a result, it's impossible to tell how old she really is, but the Grim Tales games indicate that she was at least sixty years old at the time she was restored to her youthful appearance.
  • During the course of Deadly Debt, Anna is subjected to the presence of a runic stone which reverses the effects of the ritual, showing us (and James) how she might look if she were still aging normally. She's still lovely even in that state.
• Purple Is Powerful: She wears a lot of purple in the first three games, and has powerful psychic abilities. Starting in Phantoms of the Past, however, she instead begins dressing in shades of green.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's extremely elegant and well-mannered, but she's also tough as nails. Her personnel dossier in the fifth game describes her as being fearless and a natural leader.
• Strong Family Resemblance: As seen in the Grim Tales games, Anna and her mother, daughter, and maternal aunt all have very similar features, with Alice and Alexandra looking almost identical.
• Time Travel: Her particular hat. She can go back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Unknown Character: Anna's husband Dorian and their daughter Alice somewhat fall into this, as they don't factor into the Detectives United games very much. As the main page indicates, Alice almost certainly has an Early-Bird Cameo in Timeless Voyage, but Anna doesn't comment on the photo, so players who aren't familiar with Grim Tales will likely have no idea who the child is.
  • Alice does get a mention in the Collection Sidequest in Deadly Debt; one of the timepieces gathered during gameplay is of a beautiful alarm clock shaped like a rocking horse, and the accompanying text notes that it's her favorite clock.
  • Dorian finally gets mentioned in Beyond Time, when Anna is searching for clues and finds a short love letter to James from his wife Jessica; her inner dialogue has her recall that "Dorian used to send me letters like this, too." She is, of course, referring to her husband Dorian, not Agent Brown.
• Western Zodiac: It's mentioned in Grim Tales that Anna's birthday is August 29th, which makes her a Virgo. She embodies some of the traits associated with that sign, such as being intelligent, logical, organized, and attentive to detail.

Agent Brown

Dorian Brown

Voiced by: Chris McCann

A high-ranking member of the famous Mystery Trackers Order.

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: A very minor and inoffensive version, on which no one seems to comment. Every other character in both this series and Grim Tales pronounces Anna's first name as "ANN-uh," but Brown (and Richard, when he's around) always calls her "AH-nuh."
• Affectionate Nickname: Seen more in Origins than the sequels, but Brown sometimes addresses James and Anna as "partner."
  • In Mystery Trackers: Raincliff, we learn that he and his siblings each had one of these for each other. His brother Mortimer was "Morty," and sister Arabella was "Belle." Brown himself was "Dory." These are also seen briefly in Phantoms of the Past.
• Always Identical Twins: Maybe. According to Phantoms of the Past, Brown and his brother Mortimer are twins; but since they're both invisible, it's impossible to say whether they're identical or fraternal. Their visible "disguises," however, are the same, so for all intents and purposes they are identical.
• Ascended Extra: He goes from being a non-playable character in the Mystery Trackers games to being one of the three main characters in this series.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Any time he fights while wearing one of the suits in which the devs like to dress him, he comes across this way. In the bonus chapter of Deadly Debt, he calmly ends a street fight by walking up and delivering a single punch to the back of someone's head.
• Big Brother Instinct: Despite (or maybe because of) their Vitriolic Best Buds relationship, Brown exhibits this toward James, who is indicated to be younger than himself; if James is in trouble, Brown drops the snark and gets very concerned. It's particularly noticeable during the bonus chapter of the third game, when James is Brainwashed and Crazy - Brown knows he has to stop him, but he's also genuinely upset at the idea that he might hurt his friend.
  • Later in the series, after James leaves the DU, he adopts a similar attitude toward new recruit Ewan. Mission Possible, which is Ewan's first full case, makes it clear that Brown stepped in to become the younger man's mentor and has taught him a lot of what he knows about their line of work.
• Breakout Character: Increasingly since late 2021 he's become this for Elephant Games, being one of the characters they use most often in interactive posts on their Facebook page. The social media coordinator openly admits that Brown has quite a number of fangirls and they're perfectly happy to exploit that. As of spring 2024, they've said that they're considering giving him his own spinoff series, but it's not yet confirmed to be happening.
• Classified Information: His is the shortest dossier in the DU computer, simply mentioning his name, his invisibility, and how he joined the Mystery Trackers. "Additional data is classified."
• Confirmed Bachelor: At least to the best of our knowledge. Unlike James and Anna, who each become Happily Married during the course of their origin series, Agent Brown doesn't have any known romantic partners.
• Continuity Cameo: Even outside of Detectives United, he has these in several Mystery Trackers installments, providing information to the player. He also does some Character Overlap, with a cameo in the Haunted Hotel game Eternity.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His friends don't learn anything about it until Phantoms of the Past, but Brown's life before joining the Mystery Trackers was incredibly painful, as Mystery Trackers: Raincliff shows. He was one of three siblings who grew increasingly invisible as they aged. Their father, Rafael, could turn invisible or visible at will, but developed murderous hatred for visible people and went on a number of killing sprees despite his children's best efforts to keep him confined. Eventually, Rafael murdered Dorian's brother Mortimer, then captured Dorian and tied him to a torture wheel, before being killed himself in an airship crash. (Mortimer's death is retconned in Phantoms of the Past, which can be handwaved due to the fact that it took place in the bonus chapter of Raincliff - those who only played the base game wouldn't know he was dead, and for those who did know, it can be extrapolated that he actually survived his injuries.)
• Deadpan Snarker: Of the three player characters, he's the most prone to this. The dossier shown for him in Deadly Debt even lists it as one of his most prominent characteristics. But beneath the snark, he is an incredibly Nice Guy.
• Desk Jockey: When we first meet him in Origins, he is lamenting the fact that he's been forced into this role, despite being the head of a very specialized department in the Mystery Trackers and having an excellent record for solving cases. He pretty much jumps at the call when Agent Shade tells him about the Queen's request.
• Famed In-Story: According to James, he's the most famous of the Mystery Trackers agents. He does in fact have more appearances and mentions in the entire Mystery Trackers series than any other agent besides the player, the Commander, and Agent Shade, and as noted above is the only Mystery Tracker to have also appeared in Haunted Hotel.
• Genre Savvy: He's usually pretty quick to pick up on odd situations or details, such as "Anna" not really being Anna in the bonus chapter of the second game or the absence of other cruise ship passengers in the third game. He's also good at thinking ahead and guessing at villain motives, such as when he pre-emptively swipes the Azazel stone in Origins; when he realizes he put his cruise ticket inside his Connector case in Timeless Voyage, he muses that his intuition has served him well once again. And when he departs on a solo investigation in Phantoms of the Past, he has the good sense to leave a trail for his partners to follow if something goes wrong.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Implied. In his introductory scene in Origins he's shown writing with his right hand, and he later throws an object at the Collector using the same hand. However, in the bonus chapter of Deadly Debt, he punches out an assailant using a single well-timed strike with his left hand. This suggests that he is capable of fighting with either hand.
  • This is actually confirmed in Beyond Time; his dossier, which is seen in one of the game's first puzzles, lists ambidexterity as one of his character traits.
• Heroic Fatigue: He's showing signs of this by the events of Beyond Time. While looking at documentation from the team's earlier cases, he thinks to himself that he's become so tired... "But if we don't save the world, who will?"
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He's one of the heroes, so you expect him to be a good guy, but there are several instances throughout the series which hint at Brown's softer side under his somewhat gruff exterior. His Big Brother Instinct for James is probably the biggest clue; he's also clearly fond of Anna and Agent Shade.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Unlike the other agents in the Mystery Trackers, who use code names, Brown really is his last name.
• Hopeless with Tech: A mild example, but he falls into this in Origins; after five years out of the field, the "device" is completely unfamiliar to him and he would rather let James deal with it. He also admits to not being very handy with electrical devices, letting James be the one to repair the elevator at the Black Swan Clinic in Origins and complimenting him on his success.
  • However, by the time of Deadly Debt, he's become much more comfortable with tech and has even invented a gadget of his own. Examining his favorite watch in the collection reveals that he's actually "known for his passion for various devices and technologies," suggesting that either his early dislike of the things has been retconned or else it was subterfuge to make James do the work. (His brief appearance in Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow supports the latter theory.)
• The Immune: Like all members of the Brown family, he's immune to the effects of the mind-altering roses they cultivated in Raincliff. This helps him considerably in Phantoms of the Past.
• Invisibility: His special talent, as revealed late in the first game. It's for this reason that he's covered from head to toe, including a face mask and goggles. The Mystery Trackers installments Raincliff and Raincliff's Phantoms reveal that several members of the Brown family are afflicted in this way, and Agent Brown has been invisible since he was very young; there are some subtle allusions to this when Anna visits Raincliff during the events of Origins.
  • Invisible Streaker: He's technically this (hence the use of the disguise), but it's never brought up in those exact terms, probably in order to keep the games family friendly. When his invisibility is actually showcased, as in the last act of the first game, he's depicted as a transparent version of his usual sprite - clothes and all.^note  Curiously, playing Raincliff's Phantoms reveals that wearing the same outfit too often will cause his clothes to become invisible as well, as they somehow absorb the invisibility from his skin.
• Last-Name Basis: His first name, Dorian, is only used in official documents and just once by the man himself, in his first line of dialogue in Origins. No one ever calls him anything except Agent Brown... until he's reunited with his partners near the end of Phantoms of the Past, and they both call him Dorian. In Deadly Debt, they continue to use his first name, as does Shade. And beginning in Beyond Time, even the game interface identifies him as Dorian rather than Agent Brown.
• Missing Mom: His mother, Angelina, died prior to the events of Mystery Trackers: Raincliff. Her death may have been part of what pushed his father Rafael into Sanity Slippage.
• Mr. Fanservice: As noted above, Elephant Games is having a lot of fun with the fact that Brown has a lot of fangirls. Part of the reason he's frequently depicted as a Badass in a Nice Suit is because the outfit was so well-received by players of the third game.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Averted. Unlike other Mystery Trackers field agents, Brown doesn't have an animal companion who joins him in the field at any time.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The map seen in Origins indicates that Brown's hometown of Raincliff is situated somewhere in Scotland. You'd never guess it to hear him speak.
• Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: It's stated that Brown is the head of a very specialized department in the Mystery Trackers, which is responsible for solving particularly complex cases, but we're not given any further information about just what the heck he does all day.
• Old-School Chivalry: He has a bit of this to his demeanor. As much as he snarks at James, Brown is unfailingly polite and respectful to both Anna and Agent Shade.
• Precious Photo: Phantoms of the Past gives him one, a framed picture on his desk of himself with his brother and sister. He doesn't mention it, but the opening cinematic lingers on it for quite some time to illustrate its importance.
• Protectorate: How he seems to come to view James and Anna, and eventually Ewan, as well as Shade at least to an extent. This is best illustrated in the fourth game when Brown actually attacks his own twin brother in order to prevent him from hurting James. Clearly, it doesn't matter who you are - you will not cause harm to Agent Brown's partners if he has anything to say about it. Brown's dossier in the fifth game confirms this, specifically noting that he has a "strong sense of duty to protect those closest to him."
• Pungeon Master: He occasionally likes to make these.
• Sesquipedalian Smith: He comes from a family of these. Rafael, Angelina, Arabella, Mortimer, and Dorian are all quite lengthy and interesting first names - and then the family surname is Brown.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He wears a smart black suit in the third game on the cruise ship. It was so well-received by his fans that the devs have often dressed in similar suits ever since.
• Soprano and Gravel: A bit lighter than most examples, but he has this with Agent Shade, whose voice is comparatively very high-pitched and sweet. Some gamers might observe that he sounds a little like Solid Snake or Varric Tethras.
  • Interestingly, Phantoms of the Past suggests that this is a family trait; Agent Brown's growly voice is gentler than his brother's, which is one way for the player to tell them apart.
• Theme Twin Naming: Dorian means "child of the sea." His twin brother, introduced in Phantoms of the Past, is named Mortimer, which means "dead sea." Perhaps not coincidentally, Mortimer is the Evil Twin.
• Tranquil Fury: He displays this at times when either of his partners are endangered. He tends to take that rather personally.
• Vague Age: We initially have no idea how old he's supposed to be, given that we can't actually see his features. The only clues we get are in the first game; when they meet, James remarks that Brown is said to be the oldest and most famous of the Mystery Trackers agents, and Brown himself at one point says that he has "twenty years of experience." He was implied to be a young man when he joined the Mystery Trackers at the end of Raincliff, so this would put him probably in his early to mid forties.
  • His dossier in the fifth game finally removes the vagueness, confirming him to be approximately 35 years old. This suggests that he was a teenager during the events of his origin story.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With James, whom he enjoys giving a hard time. They clearly like and respect each other, however. By the time of Deadly Debt, there is very little vitriol in their interactions at all, and Brown treats James much more like an equal.
• Walking the Earth: If the bits of trivia revealed in the hats collection in Phantoms of the Past are to be believed, Brown has done some of this in the past; one of the hats notes that he spent some time exploring a jungle.

James Blackthorne

James Blackthorne

Voiced by: Brad Ziffer

He's the main recurring character in the Haunted Hotel series.

• Absent-Minded Professor: He's a younger version of the trope, as he's often shown to misplace items.
• Alliterative Family: He has a brother named John, and at the end of his own series he marries a woman named Jessica.
• Breakout Character: Prior to the conclusion of the Haunted Hotel series, he was something of a mascot for Elephant Games, frequently appearing in their Facebook advertisements - such as their New Year's greeting on December 31, 2020.
• The Chosen One: Haunted Hotel: A Past Redeemed casts him in this role, as he is apparently the only one who is able to help a large number of spirits Go into the Light.
• The Comically Serious: While Agent Brown snarks, James is earnest and doesn't do much joking. This is probably what makes him Brown's favorite target.
• Continuity Cameo: Though he's no longer an official member of the DU by the events of Mission Possible, he does get mentioned a few times during the gameplay and is remembered fondly by his former partners. He also appears in the Collection Sidequest as a figurine.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His third Haunted Hotel appearance, Death Sentence, gives him a mild one; James once inadvertently caused an innocent man to be convicted of a crime, and the man committed suicide rather than go to prison. Although he was exonerated of perjury charges, this was enough to make him a target of the game's killer.
• Distress Ball: He picks this up more often than the other two. He's injured by the Collector during the third act of Origins, whereas Brown is merely knocked out, and the bonus chapters of both the first and third games center around him getting into serious trouble.
• Endearingly Dorky: invoked He has shades of this. The devs have (especially in later games) given him a rather sweet, cute appearance and the fashion sense of someone who gets dressed in the dark; he's also got a very eager, earnest disposition and is The Comically Serious. He manages to mostly avert the hapless-in-love aspect, though, as his relationship with Jessica is quite strong.
• Happily Married: At the end of the Haunted Hotel series, James marries his sweetheart Jessica. The final game, A Past Redeemed, shows their wedding, and the bonus chapter indicates that they are living happily in California.
• The Heart: During his time with the Detectives United, James comes closest to being this for the team, being younger than his partners; Brown and Anna both worry about him when he gets into trouble.
• Honorary Uncle: It has yet to come up in this series, but in the Grim Tales game Guest From the Future, Anna's daughter Alice refers to him as "Uncle James."
• Immune to Mind Control: In Phantoms of the Past, James proves to be resistant to the effects of the hallucinogenic roses. It's for this reason that the Big Bad and his cronies claim that he's a "dangerous criminal" - because they can't control him. Additionally, his dossier in Beyond Time explicitly states that he is "immune to magic," meaning that even magical forms of mind control don't normally work on him.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The games are a bit inconsistent as to whether his last name is Blackthorne or Blackthorn; this is also true of Haunted Hotel and his mentions in Grim Tales. It even gets misspelled as "Blackthrone" a few times in Haunted Hotel, although this is likely just a typo.
• It's Personal: Like Anna, James actually gets involved with the case in Origins of his own volition, rather than at the Queen's request; the same thief who robbed her also stole the Blackthorne family signet ring which his grandfather gave to him.
• Magnetic Medium: His special skill, as explained in his dossier in the third game. He investigates haunted locations and helps lost ghosts with their Unfinished Business so they can Go into the Light.
• Never Bareheaded: We almost never see him without his trilby. He loses it during the bonus chapter of Origins, and when a relieved Brown returns it to him, the older man notes that James just doesn't look like himself without it. This hat is the only thing which has survived from his earliest appearances, in which he had a much different wardrobe and hairstyle.
• Promoted to Playable: In the Haunted Hotel series, James isn't usually the player character; he doesn't even appear in the first four games, when the series was experiencing Early-Installment Weirdness.^note The series originally belonged to a different developer, and James wasn't added to the games until after Haunted Hotel was sold to Elephant. He is the player character in three installments, but in the others where he appears, he's the player's colleague, relative, or other acquaintance (it varies from one game to another). In this series, he's one of the three detectives and is playable for at least a portion of each game.
• Retired Badass: This is how the Haunted Hotel franchise ends. After getting married, James retires from chasing ghosts and stops investigating paranormal activity in abandoned hotels. However, he remains a member of the Detectives United and continues to assist his partners in cases.
  • As of Beyond Time, James has also retired from the Detectives United, finding it too difficult to balance the heavy workload with his life as a newlywed and wanting to spend more time with his wife Jessica. The door remains open for him to periodically show up in future installments, however.
• Ritual Magic: In addition to being a paranormal researcher, James is also an expert on assorted magic rituals. This comes in handy at times.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: On the cruise ship in the third game, he puts on a dapper suit in preparation for the formal dinner. He still wears his usual hat.
• Shout-Out: The devs have confirmed that his debut appearance in Haunted Hotel: Eclipse, as well as those in the sequel games Ancient Bane and Death Sentence, are meant to be this to Sherlock Holmes. Eclipse clearly has a late Victorian or Edwardian setting, and James is dressed very similarly to the great detective. Interestingly, he also has long hair in these installments, while later games give him the haircut he sports in Detectives United.
• The Smart Guy: Where Agent Brown is more of a 'street smart' kind of guy, James falls into the 'book smart' category; he researches and writes a good deal on his areas of expertise, and worked with the Mystery Trackers prior to the series beginning to help them develop the "device" they use for communication.
• The Team Normal: He alternates between this and Badass Normal, depending on the situation. He's an excellent researcher with extensive knowledge of the paranormal and magic, and a natural medium; but he has no particular powers of his own, which makes him look like this trope next to an invisible man and a time-traveler.
• The Unseen: According to Agent Brown, in the bonus chapter of Origins, James has a girlfriend whom the player does not see. However...
  • Unseen No More: Jessica finally appears in the last two installments of Haunted Hotel; she and James get engaged in Lost Time and marry in A Past Redeemed. She never appears in person in this series, but in Beyond Time there are a number of notes and other writings which are from her or mention her.
• Vague Age: Averted as of Deadly Debt, which confirms him to be 30 years old.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Brown, who likes to tease him a lot, but they still get along very well. The teasing lightens up considerably as the series progresses, and when it does appear it's more affectionate than anything.
• Wedding Finale: The final game in his own series centers around his wedding.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The heights version - maybe. When dividing up assignments in Darkest Shrine, Agent Brown volunteers to take the Alps "since James is afraid of heights." James's reaction makes it difficult to tell whether or not he's serious.

Ewan Florence

Making his debut in the installment Beyond Time, Ewan comes from a Heroic Lineage and ends up turning to the Detectives United for help with a family problem as well as with learning to handle his own abilities. After James Blackthorne makes his exit from the team, Ewan is recruited to fill the void.

• The Heart: Taking James's place as the youngest member of the team includes him taking on this role - possibly to an even greater extent, since he's even younger than James.
• Heroic Lineage/In the Blood: Being the great-grandson of the founders of the Time Defenders, Ewan is the only one with the hereditary powers needed to stop the Glimbourg.
• Original Character: He's the only member of the team who was not originally part of the cast of another Elephant Games series, but instead was created exclusively for Detectives United.
• Promoted to Playable: He's an NPC during the main adventure of Beyond Time, but becomes this in the bonus chapter and in the next game, Mission Possible.
• Tagalong Kid: He really isn't this; however, as he is much younger than the other DU agents (who are all upwards of thirty years old), he looks like it in comparison.

Allies

Agent Shade

Agent Shade

Voiced by: Courtney Chen (formerly Courtney Christine Rosemont)

Agent Shade is an NPC from the Mystery Trackers series. As her in-game profile in the fifth Detectives United game states, she is responsible for the Mystery Trackers agency's security and intelligence, and is also the contact agent and psychologist for the Detectives United.

• Brits Love Tea: The end of the second game's bonus chapter shows her placidly drinking tea while the others discuss recent events. (Shade isn't explicitly stated or shown to be British; however, it's implied that the Mystery Trackers are headquartered somewhere in Great Britain, so it's plausible that she might be.)
• Continuity Cameo: Agent Shade doesn't appear in the final Mystery Trackers installment, Forgotten Voices; however, she does show up in the collection sidequest to locate the three player characters' favorite possessions. Shade is the cover model on an issue of Monthly Agent, which apparently is a magazine published by the Mystery Trackers.
• Demoted to Extra: In the Mystery Trackers series, she's a field agent who specializes in intelligence. In this series, she's become Mission Control.
• Dissonant Serenity: In the second and third games, she's guilty of this much of the time. Her calm demeanor and tone of voice can make her seem almost dazed, especially in the third game, where she speaks rather slowly. She also occasionally responds to situations with Dull Surprise. Averted in the fourth game, where the calmness is jostled somewhat by her concern for Agent Brown.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": As Mystery Trackers players know, Agent Shade is not her real name, but rather her code name within that organization. Her real name is unknown, although her ID badge in The Winterpoint Tragedy gives her first initial as M.
  • Taken to extremes in the installment Fatal Lesson. Even the player character doesn't know Shade's real name, despite being her best friend.
• Hero of Another Story: She's a significant participant in the Mystery Trackers installments The Winterpoint Tragedy, Train to Hellswich, and Fatal Lesson. She also rescues the player from near death at sea during the events of Darkwater Bay.
• Indifferent Beauty: The Mystery Trackers installment Silent Hollow describes her as being "as deadly as she is beautiful." She seems entirely unconcerned with it.
• Mission Control: She arranges the detectives' missions and interacts with outsiders, like the Queen in Origins, on their behalf.
• Ms. Fanservice: She gets this treatment in the MT installment Paxton Creek Avenger. She doesn't participate in the events of the story because she's apparently on vacation at the time. Gathering photo fragments in one of the collection sidequests allows the player to assemble a picture of Shade in a red bathing suit, with the inscription "Greetings from Hawaii."
• Nice Girl: Unfailingly polite and sweet.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Like most Mystery Trackers field agents, Shade has an animal companion. According to Silent Hollow, hers is a pyrokinetic vulpine called Firefox.
• The Only One I Trust: She seems to be this for Agent Brown as far as members of the Mystery Trackers are concerned; it's possibly because she was the one who selected him for the mission in Origins, and as such he believes she values his skill. When he leaves on his secret mission prior to the beginning of Phantoms of the Past, Shade is the only one who knows where he is going and why. He trusts James and Anna, of course, but leaves them out of the loop for their own protection, and he knows he can rely on Shade to decide when to tell them what's happened. Possibly somewhat overlaps with Big Brother Mentor; Brown is technically old enough to be Shade's father and has been in the Mystery Trackers for most of her lifetime, so he almost certainly had a hand in her training.
• Right to Bare Arms: During her short appearance in Phantoms of the Past, she wears a sleeveless blouse which shows off her toned arms. There's also the Ms. Fanservice instance noted above.
• Shout-Out: Possibly, although it's equally possible that it was unintentional. As noted above, her ID badge in The Winterpoint Tragedy gives her first initial as M, and in this series, she gives the field agents their assignments. This could be a shout-out to M from the James Bond franchise.
  • Her Non-Human Sidekick being named Firefox, like the web browser, could also be this.
• Soprano and Gravel: She has this with Agent Brown; while Shade has a sweet, high-pitched vocal tone, Brown's voice is much deeper with a growly quality.
• Vague Age: Unlike the other members of the group, this is averted for Shade by The Winterpoint Tragedy. Her ID badge in that game gives her an explicit birthdate of July 25, 1989. Her profile in Deadly Debt states that she's 23 years old, suggesting that the DU games take place in the early 2010s.

Richard Gray

Richard Gray

Voiced by: Randy Hames

Anna's father's ghost is bound into his skull, which his daughter carries with her everywhere. He occasionally appears in the first three games to interact with her (or, more rarely, the other two detectives) and provide her with useful information and objects.

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Every other character in both this series and Grim Tales pronounces Anna's first name as "ANN-uh," but Richard, like Agent Brown, always calls her "AH-nuh."
• Back from the Dead: Inexplicably, the Grim Tales installment Heritage implies that Richard has left his skull. The game indicates that he can't help Anna with her latest case because he's "on vacation," although this may just be how he explained it to his very young granddaughter. Meanwhile, he's completely absent from Phantoms of the Past (which came out after Heritage), presumably for the same reason, but his absence goes unremarked by anyone. It does finally rate a brief mention in Deadly Debt, but only when Anna views a photo of her father and muses that she wishes he were around to help; no further details are offered.
  • The Reveal: The 22nd Grim Tales game Horizon of Wishes finally clears up the matter. He's on the hunt for a way to free himself from the skull prison and Go into the Light. At the very end of the game, Anna helps him do it.
  • He does, surprisingly, return to this series in Mission Possible, where he's once again a spirit bound to his skull. No explanation for his absence is offered here; however, he does hang a lampshade on it by acting, in his first scene, as though Anna has forgotten what to do with his skull - since he's been absent for the previous few installments, it's entirely possible that the player may indeed have forgotten.
• Black Comedy: He has rather a dark sense of humor, although all things considered, that's perhaps to be expected.
• The Clan: Like his daughter, he belongs to one of these.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Richard's dark history is explored in greater detail in Grim Tales: Trace in Time, confirming that in life he was definitely not a nice person.
• Dead to Begin With: As one might expect.
• Deadpan Snarker: More than anyone else in the series; it could honestly be argued that Richard is the biggest Deadpan Snarker in the entire Elephant Games catalogue.
• Distress Ball: He unexpectedly picks this up in the second game, when the Big Bad manages to steal him.
• First-Name Basis: Although Anna will sometimes refer to him as "my father" or "my dad" when speaking about him, it's more common for her to call him by his first name.
• Funny Answering Machine: When Richard has something helpful to say, his skull (on the inventory bar) wriggles and lights up. If you click on it when it's not doing this, you may get the following response:
  "Hello, Richard Gray here. I can't come out of the skull right now. Please call again later."
• Happily Married: He was this with Anastasia, Anna's mother, until her death when Anna and Luisa were children. It's unknown whether his first marriage was happy or not.
• Immune to Mind Control: Some of his usefulness comes in this form, as he's able to help fend off mind control and defuse it in others.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As much as he likes to snark at his daughter, Richard truly cares for her, and does everything he can to help when she's trapped in the past in Origins. He's generally polite to Brown and James on the rare occasions that he speaks to them, and does his part to help rescue "poor James" in the bonus chapters of the first and third games. Grim Tales also shows him to be something of a Doting Grandparent to Anna's daughter Alice and, to a lesser extent, Luisa's son Brandon and grandson Billy.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to his portrayal in the Grim Tales games, Richard is generally regarded as being less abrasive in this series. Detectives United does not even slightly touch on his very dark origin story, and mostly uses him for comic relief; consequently, he is much easier to like in the DU setting.
• Morality Chain: It's not mentioned in these games, but according to the 21st Grim Tales game, Echo of the Past, his second wife Anastasia was this for him; his love for her was stronger than his desire to commit evil deeds, and until she died he was able to keep that side of himself quiet.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: He can usually sense when things have an evil or supernatural origin, which enables him to warn his daughter. It catches him by surprise when this sense fails him, such as the cruise ship trap in the third game.
• Non-Human Sidekick: He's a ghost bound into a skull.
• Offing the Offspring: It's never mentioned in the DU games, but the Grim Tales series reveals that he once attempted to murder Anna and her twin sister. Not only that, but years before he even met their mother, he had another set of twin daughters, whom he sacrificed to extend his own lifespan. He failed when he tried the same thing on Anna and Luisa, and it ultimately resulted in his own death and his being bound into the skull.
  • The Atoner: This is at least part of the reason he helps Anna now - he's trying to make amends for his past misdeeds. The 22nd Grim Tales installment Horizon of Wishes makes it clear that he has genuine regret for his evil past, and at the end of the game he tells Anna that he hopes he's made sufficient amends in her eyes.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Being bound inside his own skull places limitations on Richard's ability to participate in the games. It does not, however, seem to limit his interactions with the physical world; almost every time he converses with Anna, he gives her a useful item he's found.
• Parental Favoritism: Maybe. He at one point in Darkest Shrine calls Anna "my favorite daughter" - and as Grim Tales players know, he does have other children. However, because he's, well, Richard, there's no way to know if he's being serious or sarcastic when he calls her that, although his appearance in Grim Tales: Horizon of Wishes would suggest that he actually means it.
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: To players of the DU games who haven't played Grim Tales, the comment comes across as this, since they may not be aware that Anna isn't Richard's only child. (He has, or has had, three other daughters and an adopted son.)
• Really Fond of Sleeping: He makes a lot of comments about wanting to rest or take a nap.
• Sarcastic Devotee: He's always there for Anna... and always has a smart remark to make at the same time.
• So Proud of You: The Grim Tales installment Horizon of Wishes reveals that while he may not say it to their faces, Richard truly does love both Anna and Luisa, and he's very proud that instead of indulging in black magic like he did, Anna uses her powers only to help people. He reiterates it in these exact words near the end of the game.
• Spirit Advisor: He's something like this to Anna and her friends, along with being the Token Non-Human member of the team.
• Stop Poking Me!: Trying to interact with his skull when it's not active will sometimes get this result instead of the Funny Answering Machine. This is also true in the Grim Tales series, where he sometimes uses these Exact Words.

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