Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Evert Backstrom

    Male

    Backstrom is a homophobic, sexist, chauvinist, corrupt, egocentric, complacent, drinking police inspector that looks down on most of his colleagues and fellow human beings. At the same time he is a (to say the least) unconventional and surprisingly good investigator. He appears in more or less prominent roles in a string of police novels by Leif G.W. Persson.

    Further reading

  • Robin Ellacott

    Female

    A long-legged blonde woman with long hair and blue-green eyes, first secretary and later assistant to private detective Cormoran Strike i London. She has a similarly long-lasting yet ambivalent relationship with her future husband Matthew Cunliffe, who wants her to get a different job. Author Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for J.K. Rowling) reveals that Robin Ellacott has more than friendly feelings for Strike.

    Further reading

  • Peter Diamond

    Male

    Peter Diamond is a police officer, formerly stationed in London, and now working in Bath in Somerset. He is 50+, a widower and overweight with abominable dietary habits – ‘an ambulatory heart attack’, according to his creator Peter Lovesey. Already in the early books, Diamond left the police service, but returned after a couple of novels. Through his stubbornness and the way he ignores orders, he solves a number of sensitive cases.

    Further reading

  • Jules-Joseph Maigret

    Male

    French detective inspector and something of an icon within the genre. Maigret was a farmer’s boy who became a cop by chance and quickly earned himself an office at the Paris police headquarters at Quai des Orfèvres. Georges Simenon’s books do not only follow the inspector’s investigations, but also his private life, including a happy, but childless, marriage.

    Further reading