Sample of literary figures
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Aurelio Zen
Male
Detective Inspector Zen is a loner based in Rome, but he solves crime all over Italy. He may seem clumsy, but his determination and laissez-faire attitude to police protocol means that he is both successful and unpopular with his superiors. Aurelio Zen featured in one book by the British author Michael Dibdin, but he became so popular that Dibdin wrote another ten about him.
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Sherlock Holmes
Male
Sherlock Holmes is one of the best-known characters in the history of crime fiction, including adaptations for film and television. His chronicler, Dr. Watson, and his address at 221B Baker Street in London are almost as famous. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and five short story collections about the detective. Holmes has since featured in thousands of stories by other authors, both as Sherlock Holmes and under a number of aliases.
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Martin Beck
Male
Few Swedes can have escaped Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm police department. A principal character in Maj Sjöwall’s and Per Wahlöö’s ten police novels, he is the typical meticulous, unhappily married, ulcer-suffering inspector in contemporary crime fiction. He has won international fame through the books and a string of adaptations for film and television.
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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.