List of characters in Public Enemy Number Two

This is a list of antagonists from the book Public Enemy Number Two.

Big Ed

A fictional character who appears in Anthony Horowitz's novel Public Enemy Number Two.

His nephew Zuckie Hommel is a prisoner at Strangeday Hall. Big Ed sends a gun into Strangeday Hall with the intention of having his arch rival Johnny Powers shot dead. Johnny is caught in the showers by Zuckie and two other inmates but Nick Diamond saves him just in time.

When Big Ed hears that Johnny Powers has escaped from Strangeday Hall, he sends out three of his cronies to catch him. But they catch Nick instead and tie him to the tracks at Clapham Junction. A strange man then rescues Nick, who then sets Big Ed's carriages on fire. The fate of Big Ed and his gang is never revealed, but it seems likely that they were all burnt to death because the blaze spread so quickly that they would surely have been unable to escape.

Zuckie Hommel

Zuckie Hommel is a fictional teenage criminal who features in Anthony Horowitz's novel Public Enemy Number Two. He is burned in the showers at Strangeday Hall after Nick Simple put too much pressure into the pipes, causing them to explode. Hommel and two other prisoners had been about to murder Johnny Powers.

It is later revealed that Zuckie is the nephew of gangster Big Ed, who is also an arch rival of Johnny Powers. It was Big Ed who sent the gun into Strangeday Hall in hope of having Johnny Powers murdered. Big Ed also tried to have Nick Diamond murdered by having him tied to a railway track, but he rescued by a mysterious man who later turns out to be Chief Inspector Snape.

During his time at Strangeday Hall, Nick was told by another inmate that Zuckie is serving life for murdering his dentist.

Mark White

Mark White is a fictional character who briefly appears in the Anthony Horowitz novel Public Enemy Number Two. He is one of three inmates at Strangeday Hall who nearly murder Johnny Powers, but Nick Diamond stops them at the last minute by causing the pipes in the showers to explode.

White has gangland connections to Big Ed, an enemy of Johnny Powers.

Mr Palis

Mr Palis is a character in the Anthony Horowitz novel Public Enemy Number Two. He is Nick Simple's unpleasant French teacher who puts him in detention for behaving badly in class, and is on the school trip to Woburn Abbey where Nick is framed for stealing the Woburn Carbuncles.

Mr Palis re-enters the story when Nick is on the run from the police in London. He saves Nick from the police when they appear outside his flat in Chelsea, despite seeing him hiding on top of a boiler room.

At the end of the story, Mr Palis is teaching a French class when Nick translates a phrase from the blackboard. Nick figures out that Mr Palis is 'The Fence' - a mysterious crime lord who was Snape and Boyle's number one target. He also figures out that it was Mr Palis who informed Johnny Powers that Nick was working for the police, and organised a plan which saw Nick and his brother Tim endure two narrow brushes with death.

Mr Palis soon realises that his days are numbered. He tries to shoot Nick but runs out of bullets and tries to ram him off the top of the school. But Nick steps aside and Mr Palis comes to a sticky end. The Fence had impaled himself on a fence.

The Fence

The Fence is a mysterious criminal created by Anthony Horowitz for the novel Public Enemy Number Two. He is known to the police but they have no idea of his true identity.

Snape and Boyle frame Nick Diamond for the Woburn Carbuncles robbery in hope of discovering the Fence's true identity. Nick shares a cell with one of the Fence's associates, Johnny Powers.

It finally turns out that the Fence is none other than Mr Palis - Nick's French teacher.