Lucifer Box

• The Vesuvius Club (2004)
  • The Vesuvius Club: Graphic Edition (2005)
• The Devil in Amber (2006)
• Black Butterfly (2008)

Box is a flamboyant, dashing and elegant figure who displays a prominent sense of fashion. A portrait painter to the rich and influential, he uses this as cover for his activities as a secret agent (in the world of the novels, the Royal Academy is the front for Britain's secret services). Box is a charming but ruthless figure, who combines a sardonic sense of humour with a cold determination to kill when necessary.

He lives at Number 9 Downing Street (next door to the Prime Minister, famously at Number 10), and presumably two doors down from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Historical note: No. 9 Downing Street is behind the Cabinet Office building at 70 Whitehall and has now been absorbed into that office complex.)

Box is also openly bisexual, and is equally comfortable seducing both male and female partners.

Lucifer Box was Charles Dickens's nickname for his daughter Kate, given to her on account of her fiery temper.

He has a sister called Pandora and a servant called Delilah, and in the third novel, The Black Butterfly, has a son called Christmas.

• Clark, Alex (24 June 2007). "I'm Agatha Christie with attitude". The Guardian.