Gregory Talbot is the son of the late DI Bill Talbot, who initially led the Margot Bambourough investigation. Gregory is “quite amenable to a chat” when Strike initially contacts him and Strike drives to Talbot’s home for the interview.¹ 

Gregory is a hospital administrator and lives in West Wickham with his wife, Alice, and their four foster children: two boys and twin girls. Gregory tells Strike that he and Alice have biological children who are grown and out of the house.² 

Gregory is helpful to Strike, even providing him with his father’s private notes on the Bamborough case³, but he’s also nervous throughout the book, worrying that his father’s mental illness and its aftermath will be brought up again and cause trouble for his family.⁴ 

“Strike remembered Gregory’s earnest, mild face, his assertion that Bill had been a good father and his embarrassment as the conversation turned to pentagrams.” ⁵ 

^{1:Troubled Blood, Chapter 16
2, 3:Troubled Blood, Chapter 17
4:Troubled Blood, Chapter 32
5:Troubled Blood, Chapter 19}