Dawn Clancy is the ex-wife of Jimmy Knight. Thirteen years older than Jimmy, she met him at a “demonstration against nuclear weapons” after her first husband left her for another girl (who she co-owned a salon with in London). Dawn says she heard Jimmy giving a speech and she “fell for it, hook, line and sinker.” Strike interviews Dawn at the salon in Manchester where she works and explains that he’s after background information on Jimmy. 

Dawn is described as a peroxide blonde with “leathery, age-spotted skin.” Strike suspects her face to be full of filler, noting her forehead was “suspiciously smooth and shiny” above her “carefully penciled eyebrows” and that “only her stringy neck betrayed her age.”