Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Cordelia Gray

    Female

    A young private detective in only two novels by P.D. James; many readers have complained that there weren’t any more. She grew up with her foster parents – her mother died an hour after the birth of her daughter – and as an adult became the secretary to the private detective Bernie G. Pryde. When he died of cancer, Cordelia Gray inherited his agency. She is attractive, but despite her successes she is – deep inside – unsure of herself.

    Further reading

  • Jason Bourne

    Male

    David Webb was a professional killer and spy when he suffers a total loss of memory after a mission. The CIA quickly changed his name to Jason Bourne, and have used him for several missions of a not particularly honourable nature. His wife was killed in a bombing, but his sons survived – which he didn’t know at first. Robert Ludlum wrote the first books about him, after which he was taken over by other writers.

    Further reading

  • Jackson Brodie

    Male

    He is a middle-aged divorced detective, former soldier and police officer, born in Yorkshire but living in London despite the fact that he has never liked southern England. So he is happy to travel north, and some of Kate Atkinson’s novels about him are set in Scotland. Jackson Brodie’s strength as a detective does not lie in logical reasoning, but in his empathy with the afflicted: the victims of crime and their loved ones.

    Further reading

  • John Cardinal

    Male

    He has a good name as a police officer and family father when his wife is found dead after what is presumed to be suicide. Besides, Detective Cardinal is, without knowing it himself, suspected of having taken bribes. His name is cleared and he starts to work with cold cases in the fictive town of Algonquin Bay in Ontario in Canada together with his younger colleague Lise Delorme in a suite of crime novels by Giles Blunt.

    Further reading