Robin makes the acquaintance of Hugh “Axeman” Jacks on a New Year’s snow-skiing trip to the Alps, near the Matterhorn. Robin’s cousin Katie and her husband know Hugh from Masham, and it’s pretty obvious that they’re trying to set up Robin and Hugh by inviting them both on this holiday.

The nickname “Axeman” comes from “Hugh Jacks” sounding like “huge axe.” (As Midge muses to Strike, “Why don’t parents say it out loud before they choose the name?” The Ink Black Heart, chapter 3)

Hugh is older than Robin by two years, and he works in pharmaceutical chemistry. Robin observes that he’s “quite nice-looking, with a neat sandy beard, broad shoulders and large blue eyes.” Unfortunately, he’s also somewhat “pathetic,” as he is fresh from a divorce himself after six years of marriage, and Hugh is wallowing in it. According to him, his wife suddenly left him. “Hugh told Robin the whole story twice in the first few days of the holiday, and after the second, almost identical recital, she did her best to avoid sitting next to him at dinner” (The Ink Black Heart, chapter 4).

“Unfortunately, he didn’t take the hint, but kept targeting” Robin, something that Hugh continues to do throughout the book (sending her a Valentine’s card and repeatedly leaving messages for her at the office) until Robin finally politely makes it plain to him that she’s not interested. Axeman doesn’t take the rejection well (The Ink Black Heart, chapter 65).