Maree Mallory

Maree Mallory is the heroine of Deep Secret. She is a plain-looking twenty-year-old veterinary student, bespectacled and a bit overweight, living in Bristol. Maree has been crossed in love by a fellow undergraduate, Robbie?, and has had to leave the apartment that she shared with him for that reason. Since then, she has been having to live with various relatives whom she dislikes, for the most part. Her father, whom she loves dearly, has cancer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she is often irritable, gloomy, and sarcastic. Her young cousin Nick Mallory is just about her only confidant.

Rupert Venables, a Magid, has her on a list of possible recruits for the position of Junior Magid. However, when they meet in person, they develop an instant dislike for one another. Yet fate has other ideas, and to their mutual dismay, they both end up at the same science fiction convention.

see also: Deep Secret (spoilers)