Sample of literary figures
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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.
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Father Brown
Male
The Catholic priest Father Brown (he has no first name) is active in England. He has a round, non-descript face and an umbrella which he is always losing; in addition, he usually carries a paper-wrapped package which he finds difficult to keep in order. But he is also one of the best amateur detectives in fiction, the main character in five classic collections of short stories (but no novel) by G.K. Chesterton.
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Arsène Lupin
Male
The name of this gentleman thief and amateur detective is Raoul d’Andrèsy, but he is better known to readers of the French author Maurice Leblanc’s stories as Arsène Lupin. The classic, fiendishly cunning thief is a classic character in mystery fiction, he even dupes Sherlock Holmes (alias Herlock Sholmes). After Leblanc’s death his character has been taken over by other authors.
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Patrick Kenzie
Male
Patrick Kenzie is a private detective from Boston. He works with his childhood friend Angela ”Angie” Gennaro. He is tough and quick-witted, he has a black sense of humour and a weak spot for his married partner, which makes their relationship complicated. Dennis Lehane has written a string of much acclaimed hardboiled, urban, violent police novels about the pair.