Vigot may not figure as one of the important characters because not much of the action in the novel is centered on him. He is the French police inspector who is given the charge of investigating the cause and nature of Pyle’s assassination. His importance in the novel lies in the fact that he is a detective who is trying to unearth the mystery of Alden Pyle’s death.
Vigot is caught between his duty to figuring out the culprit who killed Pyle and the pragmatic approach of letting things remain covered for the interest of the country. He knows very well that Fowler can be arrested because there is some evidence against him yet he lets Fowler go because he is skeptical about the whole affair. Moreover, Vigot’s character is important as he is a Roman Catholic in the novel, whose views on the world is in contrast to that of the narrator Fowler, who is an atheist. They discuss Blaise Pascal when they meet, but their way of viewing the world is different because of their difference in faith.