Sample of literary figures
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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.
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Mikael Blomkvist
Male
The journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist was born in Borlänge, but he lives in Stockholm. He was nicknamed Kalle Blomkvist (for a child detective created by Astrid Lindgren), after he solved a series of bank robberies. He is one of the main characters in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and the official sequel. Blomkvist is editor-in-chief at <i>Millennium</i> magazine and collaborates with his rebellious punk friend Lisbeth Salander.
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Dave Robicheaux
Male
After having been a soldier in Vietnam and a detective in New Orleans, he struggled for many years with his addiction to alcohol. He managed it, and became a boat renter and a private detective in Louisiana. Time after time, he is caught up in murder cases, described in a long row of novels by James Lee Burke. The middle-aged Dave Robicheaux has married three times: his first wife was murdered, the second died from tuberculosis.
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Aurelio Zen
Male
Detective Inspector Zen is a loner based in Rome, but he solves crime all over Italy. He may seem clumsy, but his determination and laissez-faire attitude to police protocol means that he is both successful and unpopular with his superiors. Aurelio Zen featured in one book by the British author Michael Dibdin, but he became so popular that Dibdin wrote another ten about him.