Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Adam Stubo

    Male

    Detective inspector in Oslo, later superintendent. Yngvar Stubø – who is often called Adam Stubo in translations – is a middle-aged man with an everyday appearance and who is described as gruff, but is also very fond of children. He meets and builds a family with forensic psychologist Inger Johanne Vik, who is the principal protagonist in a suite of thriller-like novels by Anne Holt, and together the couple solve cases.

    Further reading

  • Paddy Meehan

    Female

    When Patricia ‘Paddy’ Meehan gets a job with a newspaper in Glasgow, she is overjoyed. The job isn’t as much fun as she had hoped, but after having solved a murder case she is promoted to crime reporter – and can solve some more cases. Her family are poor, but she nevertheless manages to live a fairly pleasant private life, writes Denise Mina in her dark detective stories about Paddy.

    Further reading

  • Gideon Fell

    Male

    The enormous Dr Fell, whose physical traits are modelled on G.K. Chesterton, is one of crime fiction’s foremost problem-solvers when it comes to ‘locked-room’ mysteries and other ‘impossible’ crimes. He also works on an ever-growing doctoral thesis about English drinking habits from bygone days, he likes his beer and is married – although his wife is only mentioned in a few of John Dickson Carr’s books about him.

    Further reading

  • Anna Holt

    Female

    Anna Holt is a police officer, later commissioner of police, in Stockholm. She is the creation of authors Jan Guillou and Leif G.W. Persson who wrote the screenplay for a series of television episodes about her in the 1990s. Over the years, she has featured in some of the novels each has written independently. Holt is a complex woman, a determined and inventive investigator and a skilled interrogator.

    Further reading