Freddie Chiswell is the eldest of three children Jasper Chiswell had with his first wife, Lady Patricia Fleetwood. Major Freddie Chiswell, Queen’s Royal Hussars, was shot and killed while in Iraq. Although revered by his father and godfather, Henry Drummond, most people have a less than favourable opinion of Freddie. Strike had been the one to investigate his death while still in the SIB and, according to Strike, Freddie was not well liked by his fellow soldiers. Calling him a “prize shit,” Strike explains that “I never had so many people ask me whether the dead officer had been shot in the back by his own men.” Throughout the book, Freddie is also referred to as “a bit of a shit,” a “cunt” and, reluctantly by his sister, Izzy, “awfully naughty.”

Freddie is described as having had white-blond hair and the same “protuberant lower lip” as his father.