Wally is a popular YouTuber and ex-voice of Drek in The Ink Black Heart cartoon. He was sacked by Edie Ledwell and Josh Blay after the infamous “Cookies” video he uploaded to YouTube, which involved him and his accomplice MJ making jokes about the Holocaust. Wally frequently makes racist jokes in his YouTube channel, and ends up attracting the attention of the Brotherhood of Ultimate Thule, a male-only group suspected of being another name for terrorist organisation The Halvening.

Wally lives with his grandmother and sister Chloe on Lismore Circus estate, where he likely met Josh Blay, who also grew up on the estate. Wally is described as having tow-coloured hair, pink-and-white skin and small, bright blue eyes. He reminds Strike of a soldier he once investigated in the SIB, Private Dean Shaw.

Strike first learns of Wally through his girlfriend Madeline’s son, Henry, who tells him that Wally is doing a livestream later that night. Strike watches the livestream, which involves Wally making jokes about Edie Ledwell being killed –- he holds up a bloody knife to the camera, which turns out to be ketchup.

Strike tails Wally and MJ to Whitehall Gardens, Embankment, where they shoot a YouTube video of them interviewing foreigners. Also tailing Wally and MJ, Strike notices, is a large man with short cropped hair and a tattoo on his Adam’s apple of the Viking rune Thurizas, which Strike thus dubs him. Thurizas approaches Wally and, abandoning MJ, they go to the Ship and Shovell where they talk in one of the booths with one of Thuzas’ accomplices.

On investigating Kea Niven’s social media accounts, Strike notices an interaction on Twitter between her and Wally a few years previously. It turns out the two were sleeping together after Josh broke up with Kea.

When Dev Shah is conducting surveillance on Wally’s flat, he hears shouting from inside before MJ storms out looking like he’d been in a physical fight. Robin takes over surveillance from Dev, and a couple of hours later, Wally emerges from the flat talking on the phone. Six men, who Robin thinks could be relatives of MJ, jump Wally and beat him up. Wally is taken to hospital in bad condition. Robin notices that Anomie is active in the game while Wally is lying on the floor.