Sample of literary figures
-
Ben Cooper
Male
Cooper’s father was a policeman and Benjamin, or Ben, followed in his footsteps. He works at the Derbyshire police. Cooper grew up in Derbyshire and many of his investigations take place in the Peak District. He usually works alongside his superior officer, Diane Fry. In Stephen Booth’s novels they are in love; a fact they both refuse to admit it even to themselves.
-
Philip Marlowe
Male
Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe is the archetype of the hardboiled American private eye. Many subsequent authors of crime fiction have found inspiration in the lonesome, brooding detective. Marlowe is a former investigator at the district attorney’s office of Los Angeles County, he is well read, interested in social issues, and he moves as effortlessly in the upper echelons of society as in back alleys and shady bars thanks to his wisecracking repartee.
-
Maria Kallio
Female
She was only 23 when she got her first job with the police, but she has worked her way up to a senior post in the criminal investigation department in the Finnish town of Esbo. She has also grown older in Leena Lehtolainen’s books about her, got married to Antti Johannes Sarkela and had children. With her red hair and in good physical condition, Mario Kallio is a tough (and if necessary even harsh) feminist who appreciates a good whisky – in reasonable measures.
-
Kerstin Holm
Female
She worked for the Göteborg criminal investigation department and was engaged to a police officer who beat her up. She was transferred to the national crime squad’s A group, which Arne Dahl (pseudonym for Jan Arnald) has written about. When the group was split up, Kestin Holm continued as a police officer, and she has made several guest appearances in Dahl’s books about the international police force OPCOP.