Sample of literary figures
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John Dortmunder
Male
He is one of the most cunning thieves in the USA: he carefully plans the most fantastic coups, and has only been caught twice when he was young. Unfortunately, John Archibald Dortmunder is dogged with bad luck: his ingenious plans often go wrong at the last moment for the most incredible reasons. His adventures are described in more than a dozen entertaining – often farcical – novels by Donald E. Westlake.
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Sandy (Alejandro) Stern
Male
His father was a doctor who emigrated from Europe to Argentina. Alejandro ‘Sandy’ Stern moved on to the USA when he was a teenager, and there became successful as a skilful and empathetic defence lawyer. His greatest sorrow in life in that his wife, Clara, the mother of his children, committed suicide after 31 years of marriage. He has a role – sometimes central – in a handful of Scott Turow’s crime novels.
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Kinsey Millhone
Female
Kinsey Millhone is an American private detective with a messy private life. Her parents died in a car crash when she was still young, both her marriages ended in divorce, and her love affairs are brief. On the other hand, she is very good at her job, as a string of novels by Sue Grafton show. She sometimes makes guest appearances in books by other authors.
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Gerlof Davidson
Male
He is a former sea captain, now more than 80 years old, and in need of a walking stick as well as a hearing aid in his daily life. But there is nothing wrong with his memory and deductive reasoning. Old Gerlof – loosely based on author Johan Theorin’s grandfather Ellert Gerlofsson – is the main character, if not always the real problem-solver, in four lauded detective stories set in an Öland island environment with suggested supernatural elements.