Meny

Literary figures

Sample of literary figures

  • Eve Dallas

    Female

    A tall and slim police lieutenant in New York, the main character in a long suite of crime novels by J.D. Robb (pseudonym for Nora Roberts) set in the mid-21st century. Eve Dallas is of muscular build, has brown matted hair, whisky-coloured eyes and sharp facial features. She is tough and skilled in her job, and in her private life is married to businessman Roarke, who has a dubious background.

    Further reading

  • V.I. Warshawski

    Female

    Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski is a hardboiled private detective in Chicago. She often rescues people on the margins of society and she often she rails against crooked politicians, bigotry, and toned-down political scandals. Her father is Polish and her mother was Jewish – and she has more lovers than she has friends according to the author, Sara Paretsky.

    Further reading

  • Tony Hill

    Male

    Anthony ‘Tony’ Hill is a qualified psychologist as well as a skilful ‘profiler’ often used by the police in Bradford in a suite of crime novels by Val McDermid. He works with Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan, and they have a complicated private relationship. Hill is sickly, sexually dysfunctional and there are details that mention an unhappy and mentally stressful childhood and youth.

    Further reading

  • Guido Brunetti

    Male

    Commissario (Detective Superintendent) Brunetti in the Italian state police, stationed in Venice, solves murder cases in a number of books by American author Donna Leon, herself resident in the city. Brunetti is married to Paola, daughter in an aristocratic family and a university lecturer, and has a lively family life which includes children and his own as well as his wife’s relatives. He also battles against the Italian bureaucracy which doesn’t exactly facilitate his work.

    Further reading