| Bishop | Carstairs' secretary |
Bill | Carstairs | OSS-trained leader of CIA agents |
Señor R. | DeGamez | Proprietor of The Parrot Bookstore in Mexico City |
John Sebastian | Farrell | Works at Galeria de Artes, former Marine, one of Carstairs' agents, Aka: Johnny |
| Farrell | American imprisoned with Mrs. Pollifax |
Mr. | Garbor | Neighbor in Mrs. Pollifax's building |
Ben | Halstead | CIA operative who meets Emily, Farrell & the Genie in Otranto |
Mrs. | Hartshorne | Neighbor in Mrs. Pollifax's building, frequent traveler who likes to show slides of her trips |
| Higgins | CIA employee in charge of personnel |
General | Hoong | In charge of Albanian prison, Chinese man who captured Emily |
Dr. Lee Tsung | Howell | Real identity of the Genie; agricultural scientist kid-napped by the Chinese 2 years before, reputed to be dead |
Misses | Lambert & Donahue |
Tourists in Mexico with whom Emily shares some excursions |
Willow | Lee | Chinese agent with whom Farrell was supposed to have a date |
| Lulash | Guard at the prison who sets Farrell's broken leg |
Mr. Jasper | Mason | CIA employee with whom Mrs. Pollifax has an interview appointment |
Col. Adhem | Nexdhet | Officer in Sigurimi,
monitored Emily & Farrell's cell |
Thaddeus | Peattie | Colleague of Carstairs from CIA, knew Perdido |
General Raoul | Perdido | Agent of Mao Tse Tung, impersonated deGamez at the bookstore |
Jane | Pollifax | Emily's daughter in Arizona, husband John, has 2 children |
Mrs. Emily | Pollifax | Widow of Virgil, lives in New Brunswick, NJ, has 2 grown, married children. |
Roger | Pollifax | Emily's son |
| Smith | Aka the Genie |
| Tirpak | CIA agent on assignment in Central America, on Carstairs' team |
Major | Vassovic | Jailer in the Albanian prison |
Miss Charlotte | Webster |
CIA employee interrupts Mrs. Pollifax's interview |
Bill | | Physician
treats Farrell & the Genie onboard the SS Persephone |
Chinese man | | Mrs. Pollifax's captor |
Doctor | | Mrs. Pollifax's physician |
Johnny | | Employee at the Galeria de Artes in Mexico City, one of Carstairs' contacts |
Olé | | Mr. DeGamez' parrot |
Shkyperi | | Land of the Mountain Eagle; Albania |
Sigurimi | | Albanian secret police |
Stefan | | One of the guards at the Albanian prison |
The Genie | | Emily & Farrell's nickname for Chinese prisoner cell next to them |