Peter Winston is an agent for the Adjusters.
He grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan before attending university where he majored in engineering while on a sports scholarship, boxing and football, but was, by his own admission, fairly aimless upon graduation with an unimpressive C-minus average. He said at one point that he was 'going nuts. I'm too slow for pro boxing, too light for pro football. Too impatient to join the Marines and wait for a war to start. Too moral to be a professional killer for the Mafia.'
Shortly after graduating, he was on a subway car in New York, jobless and nearly broke, when he heard a fight break out in the next car. Three gang members were attacking a couple and were severely beating the man. Without hesitation, Winston joined in the fray and quickly and conclusively ended the skirmish though he took several knife attacks in the process.
His defense of the innocent couple brought him to the attention of Lester Vandervelde, executive vice-president of the conglomerate White, Whittle, Limited, who picked up all the expenses of the resulting hospitalization and even sent him to a plush rehabilitation center. Upon release, a job offer was made.
The job was in the International Adjustments Department of the corporation, a division more often called the Adjusters, hence the name of the series.
The head of the Adjusters was none other than Edgar White Whittle, grandson of the two company founders and billionaire CEO of the corporation. Inside the Adjusters, however, he was codenamed A-1. Unhappy with the less-than-stellar results the Western world's Intelligence communities had produced, he created the Adjusters to handle situations he felt deserving.
Winston had already worked for the Adjusters for eight years prior to the first chronicled adventure and had moved up in the ranks, due to the deaths of the three previous A-2's, until he was their foremost agent.
Peter Winston stands 6'2 and weighs 195 pounds. He is 28 years of age at the start of the series (in The ABC Affair he is listed as 29 and that assignment took place one year after the first recorded mission). He is described as 'rugged in appearance - thick of hair - hard-muscled'.
In keeping with all good men of action and adventure, Peter Winston loves the ladies and is highly successful with them. Each case has him encountering and enjoying several women, often more than once. To his credit, he treats most with considerable charm and caring.