Characters
`
Characters
Crossing the Line is driven by the people caught between Liverpool’s streets and Westminster’s power struggles. Each character stands on the edge of loyalty, ambition and betrayal — pushing the story forward with choices that can’t be undone. Here are the figures at the heart of the novel.
Jed Strich
Jed begins as a quiet, overlooked lad stacking shelves at Asda, but one chance moment throws him into danger, opportunity and a version of himself he barely recognises. The green powder strips away his fear, transforming him from mumbler to magnetic speaker — a shift that brings admiration, jealousy and danger in equal measure. His rise is thrilling, but it carries a cost: what if everyone likes the new Jed more than the man he used to be?
Jude Scott
Jude is the mate you laugh with, scheme with and sometimes run from — impulsive, chaotic, desperate for success without earning it. He loves Jed, envies him, needs him and fears losing him. When Jed transforms, Jude feels sidelined in a story he thought was his, and every decision he makes — good or catastrophic — grows from that mix of affection and insecurity.
Marie Delaney
Maria is grounded, capable and exhausted by holding too many lives together. She’s spent years seeing Jed as the shy lad in the background — until he isn’t anymore. Caught between stability and ambition, loyalty and self-respect, she becomes a quiet emotional centre of the story, navigating love, disappointment and the pull of a life beyond what she knows.
Cassia Pullin
Cassia is sharp, ambitious and morally stretched by the world of Westminster communications. She understands power, messaging and manipulation better than anyone — but sees something real in Jed that complicates her job and her conscience. She’s trapped between ambition and truth in a system that rewards neither.
Fat Pat O’Brien
A gangster who sees himself as a businessman, Fat Pat mixes brutality with warped charisma. He funds children’s homes with drug money, hates fake charity and treats his criminal empire like a company. He’s terrifying — yet disturbingly logical — and becomes one of the story’s most unpredictable forces.
Chief Inspector Elliot Walker
A corrupt policeman who slipped across the line years ago, Walker survives by staying just respectable enough. He despises criminals while living off their money, and panics the moment his world begins to crumble. He’s not a monster — just a man who has compromised himself so often he no longer sees the line.
Cormack O’Neill
The Prime Minister’s ruthless strategist. O’Neill believes fear wins votes and truth is optional. When he meets Jed, he doesn’t see a person — just a working-class asset who can sell a message to a divided country. Cold, brilliant and unashamedly cynical.
Erik Shaman (Prime Minister)
A leader terrified of failure and obsessed with legacy. Shaman doesn’t want to change the country — he wants the history books to love him. With the monarchy referendum tightening, he uses Jed as a shiny tool to salvage his public image, even as the country unravels beneath him.