Pulcinella

Pulcinella aka Mr Punch, Punchinello. A puppet character whose persona is adopted by the revenant Henry Pyke. Punch represents the anarchic spirit of the London mob, and this spirit works through the vengeful ghost of Henry Pyke to commit murder and cause riots in modern day London.

Punch/Pyke uses a magical influence to cause an ordinary person to commit a brutal murder. In their last moments, while under the Revenant’s influence, the perpetrator takes on the appearance of Mr Punch as their face becomes disfigured and distorted to form a distinctive hooked nose and chin.  In one case, the murderer puts on a Mr Punch-style jacket and hat before carrying out the murder. Each murder is staged to follow the puppet-show story of Mr Punch. Once the murder has been carried out, the magical influence ceases and the perpetrator's face, irretrievably damaged, falls off, resulting in massive blood loss which is almost always fatal.

Pulcinella appears in the real-world The Tragical Comedy, or Comical Tragedy, of Punch and Judy.  This is best known now from the traditional "Punch and Judy show".

The memory of Mr Punch keeps haunting Peter.

Cave pericula secunda! The following sections may contain spoilers for all novels and comics.

In life, Mr Punch was Gaius C. Pulcinella, a Roman citizen of Atrebates origin living in Roman Londinium and killed with his family when the Roman legions abandoned the city to the Iceni. As a revenant, this made him a rebel spirit, always thumbing his nose at authority, and, by reverse logic, the champion of the common Londoner.

Known surviving victims

• Terrence Pottsley (he later committed suicide)
• Lesley May