Sample of literary figures
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Judy Hammer
Female
Superintendent Judy Hammer is head of a police department in North Carolina, Virginia, where she has to deal with both city crime and stubborn islanders in a short suite of novels by Patricia Cornwell. Hammer is a middle-aged, unhappily married but very fond of her young colleague Andy Brazil, who becomes her right hand. In the books about them, realistic police work is combined with some less realistic elements.
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Cordelia Gray
Female
A young private detective in only two novels by P.D. James; many readers have complained that there weren’t any more. She grew up with her foster parents – her mother died an hour after the birth of her daughter – and as an adult became the secretary to the private detective Bernie G. Pryde. When he died of cancer, Cordelia Gray inherited his agency. She is attractive, but despite her successes she is – deep inside – unsure of herself.
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Harry Hole
Male
Harry Hole is Jo Nesbø’s creation. Hole is immensely popular among readers even outside Nesbø’s native Norway. He is a police officer with a serious drinking problem and countless scars acquired in the line of duty. His methods are unconventional, he is headstrong and he is unpopular with both his superiors and his colleagues. The stories about him are more like hardboiled American thrillers than traditional detective stories.
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Malcolm Fox
Male
He isn’t loved by his colleagues in the police force, because his job is to investigate occurrences of professional misconduct. Malcolm Fox is a well-built and divorced middle-aged man, who worries about his father’s delicate health and his alcoholic sister – he, himself, has been a teetotaller for a long time. He works in Edinburgh, where he cooperates with another of author Ian Rankins’ main characters: John Rebus.