Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Alan Banks

    Male

    Detective Inspector Banks works in the fictional town of Eastvale in Swainsdale, a fictional region based on Yorkshire. He is the calm and systematic protagonist in a series of novels and short stories by the British author Peter Robinson. DI Banks likes model railways, sixties rock and his colleague Annie Cabbot, with whom he has had an off and on relationship after divorcing his wife Sandra.

    Further reading

  • Victor Legris

    Male

    In the late 19th century, he runs a bookshop, Librairie Elzévir, in Paris together with his Japanese adoptive father Kenji Mori. In his free time, Victor Legris is an enthusiastic amateur detective and photographer. He is something of a clothes snob, is athletically built and has an appearance that interests women. Claude Izner (pseudonym for Liliane Korb and Laurence Lefèvre) has written a suite of novels about him.

    Further reading

  • Adam Dalgliesh

    Male

    Adam Dalgliesh is a successful, much respected detective inspector and poet that features in novels by P.D. James. In her first book about him, she spelt his name Dalgleish, which has caused some confusion. He is a typical soft-spoken, straightforward, pragmatic English gentleman who operates more like a classic private detective than a Scotland Yard DI. He conducts himself with ease in all kinds of geographical and social settings.

    Further reading

  • Gideon Fell

    Male

    The enormous Dr Fell, whose physical traits are modelled on G.K. Chesterton, is one of crime fiction’s foremost problem-solvers when it comes to ‘locked-room’ mysteries and other ‘impossible’ crimes. He also works on an ever-growing doctoral thesis about English drinking habits from bygone days, he likes his beer and is married – although his wife is only mentioned in a few of John Dickson Carr’s books about him.

    Further reading