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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Easy (Ezekiel) Rawlins
Male
Afro-American war veteran, who in the late 1940s established himself as a private detective in Los Angeles. In the books by Walter Mosley we get to follow his life during the decades that follow. For example, Ezekiel Porterhouse ‘Easy’ Rawlins gets married to Regina, they have a daughter Edna and adopt the dumb Jesus. Easy is a pleasant, quick-thinking and nice-looking man and he uses fantastic, contemporary slang.
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Gunnar Barbarotti
Male
His father was Italian, his mother Swedish – and one of the few things they were successful with was their son’s name. Gunnar Barbarotti is a police detective in the fictive Swedish town of Kymlinge. He is a reflecting gentleman with an everyday appearance who is unlucky in his relationships: his first wife leaves him, his second wife dies in the books by Håkan Nesser. When alone, Barbarotti has long conversations with God.
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Adelia Aguilar
Female
Her full name is Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar, she lives in the 12th century and is a doctor. She is sent from Sicily to England to assist in the investigation of the murder of a child, and solves the case. Afterwards, she reluctantly stays in the country. She is dark-blond, beautiful and slim, and the unmarried mother of daughter Allie whose father is a bishop, we are told by Ariana Franklin (pseudonym for Diana Norman).