Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Brother Cadfael

    Male

    Brother Cadfael is a former crusader who joined the Benedictines on his return to England. He is a herbalist at a monastery in Shrewsbury in Shropshire where he solves crime. These whodunits by Ellis Peters (a pen name used by Edith Pargeter) are set in England during the turbulent first half of the twelfth century. They have caused a major surge in popular interest in historical crime novels.

    Further reading

  • Maureen O’Donnell

    Female

    She is the protagonist in the prize-winning Garnethill trilogy by the Scottish crime writer Denise Mina. Young Maureen is a human wreck: sexually abused by her father, her mother an alcoholic, her brother a drug dealer. She has spent time in a mental hospital, and started a relationship with her psychiatrist. But she is stubborn and determined, and struggles to solve the problems and crimes she comes across.

    Further reading

  • Carol Jordan

    Female

    Carol Jordan is a detective at the head of a special task force that investigates violent crime in the fictional town of Bradfield, England. She collaborates with the profiler Tony Hill in a series of novels by Val McDermid. They have a fraught personal relationship that ends when Jordan leaves the profession after a breakdown following the murder of her brother. She later makes a comeback and continues to work with Hill.

    Further reading

  • Embla Nystrom

    Female

    Former Nordic champion boxer (light welterweight), now a county police officer in the west of Sweden. She is about 30 years old and muscular, with curly reddish-brown hair and blue-green eyes in a somewhat round face: cute but not pretty, according to her creator Helene Tursten. Having grown up with three brothers, Embla Nystrom knows how to put lads in their place. The man in her life is little Elliot, the son of her ex-husband Jason.

    Further reading