Sample of literary figures
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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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Nero Wolfe
Male
Nero Wolfe is one of the largest detectives in crime fiction – he weighs almost 150 kilos. Wolfe loves food, orchids and books. Created by Rex Stout, he is a classic crime fiction detective that lives in a New York brownstone. Rumour has it that he is Sherlock Holmes’s son. He has roots in Montenegro and at his side is his trusted secretary, Archie Goodwin, who makes sure that he stays on the job.
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Hanne Wilhelmsen
Female
Hanne Wilhemsen comes from a family of academics, and her father is a professor. She surprises and annoys her family by becoming a police officer. Wilhelmsen is a lesbian, she is good looking and she rides a pink Harley Davidson until she is shot and ends up in a wheelchair. Anne Holt has written a string of internationally acclaimed novels about Wilhelmsen’s professional and private life.
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Kristina Vendel
Female
Female detective inspector with the police in Huddinge, Stockholm. Her father had fled from East Germany to Sweden; Kristina Vendel’s marriage to Johan is in trouble and eventually breaks up. She has light hair, grey-green eyes, and studied Philosophy before she started at Police College. She has a tough time at work, and is often abused in several ways, Theodor Kallifatides tells us.