Sample of literary figures
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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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Karen Pirie
Female
She is an overweight workaholic, but also exceptionally skilful when it comes to investigating old, unsolved cases in police novels by Val McDermid. Karen Pirie is the head of the Historic Cases Unit with its head office in Fife in Scotland. Her private life is minimal – but includes a sweetheart, her colleague Phil Parhatka, and she mourns deeply when he is killed on duty. But she soon throws herself into the next ‘cold case’.
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George Smiley
Male
He is rather fat, has been said to liken a toad, and is married to the beautiful and forever unfaithful Lady Ann Sercombe. Besides which, George Smiley is a lethal agent with the British Secret Service in a suite of novels by John Le Carré. Before retiring, he also becomes the director of the secret service. In some of the early books, he is however more active as a detective.
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Richard Hannay
Male
He was born in Scotland, learnt German from his father’s business friends, but grew up in South Africa. He was a soldier in the Boer War, but moved back to England in 1914, and was drawn into the first of the adventures that John Buchan wrote about him. Richard Hanney was a spy in the First World War, but subsequently married Mary Lamington, had a son called Peter John, and became a farmer.