Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Maisie Dobbs

    Female

    Young, brave and intelligent private detective who started to work as a domestic when she was only 13 years old. Maisie Dobbs had a benevolent female employer, and got to study nursing and psychology. She fell in love with a doctor who was killed in the First World War, and in 1929 she started her own detective agency. Jacqueline Winspear has written more than a dozen books about her.

    Further reading

  • Harry Friberg

    Male

    Stieg Trenter based his protagonist Friberg on his friend, the photographer K. W. Gullers. Friberg too is a well-known photographer. He is a cheerful, alert man who loves good food and the company of women. It is not he, however, who solves crime, that is the job of Detective Inspector Vesper Johnson. When Trenter died, his wife Ulla continued the series, allowing Friberg to get married.

    Further reading

  • Alex Recht

    Male

    In the Stockholm C.I.D., Detective Chief Inspector Alex Recht is something of a legend. With more than 30 years’ service and a large number of hard-to-solve cases behind him, he starts – even though he loves his job – to look forward to retirement and to being able to spend more time with his wife, Lena, with whom he has been married almost as long as he has been a police officer. In the books by Kristina Ohlsson he usually works together with Fredrika Bergman.

    Further reading

  • Joe (Joseph) O'Loughlin

    Male

    He has had a successful career as a psychologist. But Joseph (Joe) O'Loughlin has reason to be depressed: he has separated from his wife Julianne, who later dies, and he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Nor is he handsome: he has a long, but pear-shaped nose, watery brown eyes and a pale complexion. He also becomes involved in several cases of severe crime in novels by Michael Robotham.

    Further reading