Sample of literary figures
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Kinsey Millhone
Female
Kinsey Millhone is an American private detective with a messy private life. Her parents died in a car crash when she was still young, both her marriages ended in divorce, and her love affairs are brief. On the other hand, she is very good at her job, as a string of novels by Sue Grafton show. She sometimes makes guest appearances in books by other authors.
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John Dortmunder
Male
He is one of the most cunning thieves in the USA: he carefully plans the most fantastic coups, and has only been caught twice when he was young. Unfortunately, John Archibald Dortmunder is dogged with bad luck: his ingenious plans often go wrong at the last moment for the most incredible reasons. His adventures are described in more than a dozen entertaining – often farcical – novels by Donald E. Westlake.
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Gordianus
Female
He is called Gordianus the Finder, and is a private investigator in ancient Rome in the days of Julius Caesar. ‘Lawyers’ and orators like Cicero are some of the people who use his services in historical crime novels by Steven Saylor. Gordianus’ wife is the Egyptian Bethesda, previously his concubine whom he had bought as a slave. He lives in Rome until he inherits a farm in Etruria, but later moves back to the city.
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Easy (Ezekiel) Rawlins
Male
Afro-American war veteran, who in the late 1940s established himself as a private detective in Los Angeles. In the books by Walter Mosley we get to follow his life during the decades that follow. For example, Ezekiel Porterhouse ‘Easy’ Rawlins gets married to Regina, they have a daughter Edna and adopt the dumb Jesus. Easy is a pleasant, quick-thinking and nice-looking man and he uses fantastic, contemporary slang.