Nick Howell

Nick grew up in Wales with his widowed mother and elder brother. He never met his father.

When Nick was 6 years old he was involved in an accident in which his elder brother was drowned. Nick was also thought to have drowned, but survived, suddenly coming round after almost an hour of unresponsive resuscitation. He suffered no apparent damage, but from that time onwards found that he could see energy fields surrounding bodies. He never understood this and his mother called him a freak. He learned to survive by keeping his head down and not at looking her, and eventually anyone, directly.

As soon as he could Nick left home and travelled, returning home only when he learned that his mother was dying. He discovered an interest in local history and met Maggie at Knyghton House in Newport, where he was working as a volunteer archivist. 

On the surface Nick seems shy and uncommunicative. But Maggie and Zelah soon learn that he is a deep thinker and speaks when he has something that he needs to communicate. He can pick up details of their cases that they might miss and they often consult him when they are stuck.

Within Maze Nick sometimes has to be a peacemaker and intervene between outbreaks of confrontation between Zelah and Maggie.

He has an ongoing project to produce a database of every genealogy website available. This is his “big project”.

Nick has, from their first acquaintance, been attracted to Maggie. She does not return his feelings but values his friendship. And she also values his rapport with her daughter Alice, who looks up to Nick as a father figure, a role he is happy to fulfil.

Rejected romantically by Maggie, Nick finds a friend and later a partner in Stella Bell, the manager of Llanyrafon Manor.

He has secret.