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Note: Due to the amount of Adaptation Name Change between British and North American editions, both names will be listed, but the British names take priority.


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The McGurk Organization

    As a whole 
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: The original four members of the Organization. McGurk (choleric), Joey (melancholic), Willie (phlegmatic), and Wanda (sanguine).
  • Kid Detective: The original four were nine or ten at the time of The Nose Knows, with the oldest of them being around twelve in the later books.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: They squabble quite a bit in each book, but at the end of the day, they always have each other's backs.

    Jack P. McGurk 
First appearance: The Nose Knows
The freckled, fiery, redheaded (not necessarily in that order) leader of the McGurk Organization.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: He has his moments – especially in the early books when he's ten years old.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: In The Case of the Weeping Witch, his middle name is outed as being Perseverance.
  • Fiery Redhead: A male example. He's easily the most vivacious and tenacious of the Organization.
  • Gut Feeling: His hunches are his biggest asset, but they've also been known to get him (and the other members of the Organization) into trouble more often than not.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is pretty bossy and domineering, but he never abandons his officers in their time of need.
  • Last-Name Basis: Only his family actually calls him Jack.
  • The Leader: Of the Organization – and won't hesitate to let you know that.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: For all of his bragging, his hunches are usually what clinches the case in the end.
  • Red Is Heroic: Redheaded McGurk would certainly think so!
  • Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: The leader of the band.
  • Wax On, Wax Off: Frequently came up with "training exercises" that also got the other kids to do his work for him. For example, raking the yard to match leaves. The point, as McGurk explained, was to look for leaves that didn't match the trees in the yard. Really, he was just getting the others to rake the yard so he didn't have to.
  • Youthful Freckles: Apart from his red hair, it's the most likely physical trait of his that Joey will mention.

    Joey Rockwell / Joey Rockaway 
First appearance: The Nose Knows
"Word Expert" of the McGurk Organization and the narrator of every book.
  • Bookworm: The reason he's the Organization's "Word Expert."
  • First-Person Smartass: Joey never passes up an opportunity to criticize McGurk's more misguided or selfish decisions.
  • The Lancer: Was McGurk's best friend before he started the Organization, and is much more grounded than him.
  • Nerd Glasses: The bookworm of the bunch, and a notable glasses-wearer.
  • Not So Above It All: Compared to many of the others, he's more reserved, but there are occasional moments when he joins in the chaos.

    Willie Sanders / Willie Sandowsky 
First appearance: The Nose Knows
"Smells Expert" of the Organization.
  • Agent Mulder: By virtue of his more Cloud Cuckoo Lander impulses.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Willie tends to be the one to come up with the most outlandish theories of the bunch.
  • The Big Guy: The tallest member of the Organization, and there are moments when he's shown to have the most stamina of them, like at the end of The Case of the Snowbound Spy, where when he, Wanda, and Brains get the idea of shovelling snow onto the driveway and porch of the titular spy's house to prevent him from leaving, Willie "shoveled like ten men" according to Wanda.
  • The Nose Knows: Willie's greatest asset is his keen sense of smell. In The Case of the Bashful Bank Robber, Brains even devises a system to quantify the different properties of smells to help classify what Willie smells.

    Wanda Grieg 
First appearance: The Nose Knows
"Tree Expert" of the Organization.
  • Deadpan Snarker: When McGurk makes a blunder or pulls a jerk move, expect Wanda to make her displeasure known.
  • The Heart: Despite her sarcastic nature, she's probably the member of the Organization most considerate of people's emotional welfare. After Mari joins, the two of them effectively share the role.
  • Sour Supporter: The member of the organization most likely to pour cold water on McGurk's hunches.
  • Team Mom: Sometimes has to act as the grounding influence for the Organization.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: When Mari joins, Wanda becomes the tomboy to Mari's girly girl.

    Gerald "Brains" Bellingham 
First appearance: The Great Rabbit Robbery
Joined Organization: The Case of the Invisible Dog
"Science Expert" of the Organization.

    Mari Yoshimura 
First appeared and joined Organization: The Case of the Vanishing Ventriloquist
"Sound Expert" of the Organization.
  • Forgot Flanders Could Do That: In The Case of the Vanishing Ventriloquist, Mari martial arts kicks a man unconscious. This was handled fairly realisticallynote . Her martial arts ability wasn't even mentioned again until 4 books later in the series, when she was able to use an armlock to subdue a boy her own size, and never again after that.
  • The Heart: Shares this role with Wanda once she joins the Organization. She's shown to dislike it when the others argue, and tends to be a mediating influence between McGurk and Wanda.
  • Living Lie Detector: With her knowledge of human voices, Mari is able to tell different kinds of lie.
  • Sixth Ranger: The sixth and final person to join the organization.
  • Spoiled Sweet: Her father owns a major electronics company, and she's one of the most good-natured members of the Organization.
  • Token Minority: The only non-white member.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Once she joins, she becomes the girly girl to Wanda's tomboy.
  • Ventriloquism: Part of the reason she's the "Sound Expert."
  • Voice Changeling: Mari has a profound ability to change her voice.

Other Significant Characters

    Sandra Ennis (Unmarked spoilers!
First appearance: Deadline for McGurk

A recurring adversary of the McGurk Organization's. Attempts to humiliate them twice, being the only character to be the culprit of two novels.

First, in Deadline for McGurk, after getting turned down for Organization membership, she decided to get even with them by stealing neighborhood kids' dolls and only promising to return them if the Organization admitted it was no good. Instead, she got found out by the Organization.

Then, in The Case of the Treetop Treasure, she uses a convoluted scheme involving stashing a bunch of odds and ends, followed by a valuable silver bowl to implicate Wanda for its theft.

It looks as though she's trying to frame the Organization again in The Case of the Fantastic Footprints. But after the McGurk Organization investigates, they soon realize the actual culprit was a cousin of Sandra's trying to frame her for framing the Organization to try and get Sandra's aunt to disinherit her and leave him her money.


  • Foil: To Wanda. Both are quick-witted female characters, but while Wanda is a good-natured tomboy, Sandra is more feminine, and more antagonistic.
  • Frame-Up:
    • Tries to frame members of the Organization twice – first McGurk for the doll thefts in Dolls in Danger, then Wanda for stealing a silver bowl in The Case of the Treetop Treasure.
    • In The Case of the Fantastic Footprints, it seems like she's trying to make it a hat trick, attempting to frame the Organization for the titular acts of vandalism. But this time it turns out she's on the receiving end of this trope, with the real culprit's goal being to frame her for framing McGurk and co.
  • Mister Big: In her ransom notes in Dolls in Danger, she identifies as "Mr. Big." But Sandra is a Downplayed example in that she isn't very big, but she's not exactly small either.
  • Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: Projects the image of a sweet little girl, but she's the only character to be the culprit of two different books.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: While there's no love lost between her and the McGurk Organization, in McGurk Gets Good and Mad, when Robinson Hackett tries to impress her by humiliating the Organization at their open house – where Patrolman Cassidy was a guest of honour – Sandra wants no part in it, and insults Robinson for his troubles. McGurk and co. figure that because Sandra had previously gotten in trouble with the police for her antics in The Case of the Treetop Treasure, she likely wanted to avoid getting in hot water with the police a second time.
  • The Rival: Forms this to the McGurk Organization – to McGurk and Wanda in particular.

    Patrolman Cassidy 

Patrolman Kevin Cassidy

First appearance: The Case of the Nervous Newsboy

An officer of the West Milford Police Department and a friend of the Organization's.


  • Friend on the Force: Forms this to the Organization.
  • Friend to All Children: Joey soon realizes that the reason Cassidy's the town's school liason officer is that he's very savvy at handling kids. Still, McGurk can and does test his patience now and again.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Good at mediating between McGurk's impulsive behavior and the realities of the situation on the ground. He also isn't afraid to put his foot down when it comes to McGurk potentially putting himself and the other members of the Organization in danger.
  • You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Likes to jokingly get McGurk's name wrong to knock his ego down a peg. The Organization can tell he's being dead serious when he doesn't get it wrong.

    Lieutenant Kaspar 
First appearance: The Case of the Nervous Newsboy

Patrolman Cassidy's boss. Decidedly less friendly with the Organization.


    Ed Greig 
First appearance: The Great Rabbit Robbery

Wanda's older brother.


    Joanne Cooper & Donny Towers 
First appearance: The Great Rabbit Robbery

Some friends of the Organization. Joanne works at the town museum. Her fiancé, Donny, is a social worker.


  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Donny has some shades of this in The Case of the Muttering Mummy.
  • Nice Girl: Joanne is one of the friendliest adults in town as far as the Organization is concerned.

    "The Flying Fingers" 
First appearance: The Case of the Four Flying Fingers

A quartet of mischievous kids that were being paid by Lady Thumb to knock over people's garbage cans to "finger" the houses for her robberies. Later call on the McGurk Organization's aid in The Case of the Slingshot Sniper.


  • Bratty Half-Pint: All of them, to an even greater extent than McGurk.
  • The Psycho Rangers: Joey notes a number of uncanny similarities between the titular "Fingers" and the male members of the Organization,note  wondering if they have a Shadow Wanda somewhere. They sort of do… in the form of Lady Thumb.
  • Unwitting Pawn: They were all completely in the dark about Lady Thumb's break-ins.

    "Lady Thumb" (Unmarked spoilers!) 

Erika Smith, aka. "Lady Thumb"

First appearance: The Case of the Four Flying Fingers

A housebreaker who paid the "Flying Fingers" to knock over garbage cans all over town, using them to identify houses where the residents weren't there so she could burgle them.

She later makes a reappearance in The Case of the Absent Author, where it's revealed she's the daughter of eminent mystery writer Bill Smith (aka. Bill Legrand).


  • The Bus Came Back: Reappears ten books and 13 years after her debut,note  becoming the only adult culprit to go to jail to make a return.
  • The Charmer: Manages to con the Organization into her van to try and abduct them (that is, drive them as far as the state line) after being found out by pretending she was about to turn herself in. It works! Even after she's caught, she manages to flatter McGurk enough that Joey has to snap him out of it.
  • The Nicknamer: Calls McGurk "Red," Joey "The Professor," Wanda "Wondergirl," Willie "Beaky," and Brains "Little Fuzz." Joey compares it to a witch using special names for people when they want to get them completely in their power.
    • Humorously enough, her father winds up using these names for characters based off of the Organization in one of his novels.
  • Not Me This Time: Is innocent when she reappears in The Case of the Absent Author.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Is only referred to as "Lady Thumb" in her debut appearance. We only learn her actual name in The Case of the Absent Author.

    Robinson Hackett 
First appearance: McGurk Gets Good and Mad

A local thirteen-year-old whiz-kid.

After turning out to be the culprit in McGurk Gets Good and Mad, the Organization enlists his aid in The Case of the Slingshot Sniper.


  • Big Eater: To the point where in McGurk Gets Good and Mad, McGurk "sweats" him into confessing to his crimes with the promise of food.
  • Geek Physique: He's a local savant and he's on the fat side.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: Wanted to cultivate this image in McGurk Gets Good and Mad, stealing the handcuffs given to Organization by Patrolman Cassidy and disposing of them by slipping it into a Salvation Army drop-off. However, his plan hit a snag when his intended "Maid Marian" wanted nothing to do with him.
  • Insufferable Genius: To an extent.
  • Love Makes You Evil: In McGurk Gets Good and Mad, what causes the whole affair is when he developed a crush on the Organization's old enemy, Sandra Ennis, and tried to impress her by making fools of them in front of the neighbourhood and Patrolman Cassidy. When Robinson tells Sandra about this however, she chews him out and insults him, wanting no part in it. At the end of the book, McGurk discusses this trope briefly.

    Gwyneth Owen/Mistress Brown & Gareth Owen 
First appearance: The Case of the Dragon in Distress

A pair of twin siblings the Organization befriend in medieval Wales in 1175 in The Case of the Dragon in Distress, later finding out that they too are time-travellers, this time from the year 1610.

The Organization run into Gwyneth again in 1692 in The Case of the Weeping Witch, now an old woman, having married a man named Brown in the interim.


    Hester Bidgood 
First appearance: The Case of the Weeping Witch

A thirteen-year-old girl the Organization befriends in 1692, Hester is something of a detective herself. Later becomes the protagonist of her own book, Hester Bidgood, Investigatrix of Evill Deedes.


  • Kid Detective: Several centuries before the McGurk Organization.

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