Sample of literary figures
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Vera Stanhope
Female
An eccentric, middle-aged, controversial detective chief inspector in Northumberland and in a series of police novels by Ann Cleeves. Stanhope is a grim lone wolf and workaholic, in part because as a child she was subjected to sexual abuse by an acquaintance of her single father. She still lives in her childhood home, drives her father’s old Landrover and solves murder cases in her own very special way.
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Michelle Maxwell
Female
She once gained an Olympic medal in rowing and later became a Secret Service agent, but lost her job when she had been careless with the protection of a presidential candidate who was murdered. David Baldacci describes Michelle Maxwell as 30 something years old, attractive,175 cm tall, with dark hair – and an expert at close combat. She works together with Sean King, and now and then they have an… uhmm, intimate relationship.
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Van Veeteren
Male
Despite his successful career as a detective chief inspector, he tires of his job, and starts afresh as an antiquarian bookseller. But he continues to play an important role in Håkans Nesser’s books about the police in Maardam. Van Veeteren is a well-built and heavy man, he has a bass voice, is divorced and has been operated for stomach cancer. He is very fond of classical music and dark beer, and likes to chew on a toothpick.
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Erik Winter
Male
Winter is a detective inspector in Gothenburg, Sweden. Contrary to most other literary detectives he comes from a wealthy family and is well off. He marries a physician, Angela, and they have a child together in Åke Edwardson’s string of books about him. After a period of hard work, the family moves to Spain, but a couple of years later Winter returns to Gothenburg, without his family, and returns to his former job.