Sample of literary figures
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Erik Winter
Male
Winter is a detective inspector in Gothenburg, Sweden. Contrary to most other literary detectives he comes from a wealthy family and is well off. He marries a physician, Angela, and they have a child together in Åke Edwardson’s string of books about him. After a period of hard work, the family moves to Spain, but a couple of years later Winter returns to Gothenburg, without his family, and returns to his former job.
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Siv Dahlin
Female
After her divorce, assistant nurse Siv Dahlin leaves Gothenburg and works in lowly-paid jobs in rural areas in Sweden, including Dalarna. She is middle-aged and struggling with a tendency to put on weight. But she is also wise and observant, and when sudden deaths occur in the books by Aino Trosell, Siv Dahlin fortunately doesn’t always rely on the conclusions drawn by the authorities, but always carries out her own investigations.
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Hafez el-Assad
Male
He is simply called Assad by his colleagues in the crime novels by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen. Despite lacking formal qualifications, he is employed in the police department’s so-called ‘cold-case’ group. He generously shares of his knowledge of, for example, various types of weapons, but is not keen to talk about himself. Assad has his roots in an Arab country, probably Syria, and has certain difficulties with the Danish language.
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Gunnar Barbarotti
Male
His father was Italian, his mother Swedish – and one of the few things they were successful with was their son’s name. Gunnar Barbarotti is a police detective in the fictive Swedish town of Kymlinge. He is a reflecting gentleman with an everyday appearance who is unlucky in his relationships: his first wife leaves him, his second wife dies in the books by Håkan Nesser. When alone, Barbarotti has long conversations with God.