Sample of literary figures
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John H. Watson
Male
Sherlock Holmes’ chronicler and permanent companion in the stories by A. Conan Doyle has given his name to a particular type of character in crime fiction: a detective’s right hand, conversational partner and admiring friend is called ‘a Watson figure’. In books by other authors, Dr Watson has solved cases by himself. The ‘H’ in his name (according to Sherlockian research) stands for Hamish, the Scottish for James.
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Gideon Fell
Male
The enormous Dr Fell, whose physical traits are modelled on G.K. Chesterton, is one of crime fiction’s foremost problem-solvers when it comes to ‘locked-room’ mysteries and other ‘impossible’ crimes. He also works on an ever-growing doctoral thesis about English drinking habits from bygone days, he likes his beer and is married – although his wife is only mentioned in a few of John Dickson Carr’s books about him.
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Linda Martinez
Female
Her mother is English, her father from Jamaica and she (Linda Martinez) is a police officer in Stockholm. She makes a quick career, and becomes the head of the investigative section. She was introduced in a TV series by Jan Guillou and Leif G.W. Persson in the 1990s, and has since then played a more or less large role in several of Persson’s books. She doesn’t like to talk about her private life, but she can be very blunt and direct, and likes strong beer.
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Siri Bergman
Female
Psychologist and psycho-therapist Siri Bergman, 30-something years old, lives alone in a converted summer cottage on Värmdö island near Stockholm, since her husband drowned. She eventually can move on after her loss, embarks on a relationship with police officer Markus and is given a role in the police profiling group. But her past haunts her in a suite of crime novels by the sisters Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff.