Sample of literary figures
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Paddy Meehan
Female
When Patricia ‘Paddy’ Meehan gets a job with a newspaper in Glasgow, she is overjoyed. The job isn’t as much fun as she had hoped, but after having solved a murder case she is promoted to crime reporter – and can solve some more cases. Her family are poor, but she nevertheless manages to live a fairly pleasant private life, writes Denise Mina in her dark detective stories about Paddy.
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Tom Ripley
Male
He is charming, handsome and cultivated as well as being a ruthless serial killer and psychopath totally lacking in empathy, the main character in five classic thrillers by Patricia Highsmith. Thomas ‘Tom’ Ripley became an orphan when he was five years old, and was brought up by a callous female relative. He later marries the wealthy Héloïse Plisson, but nevertheless has successfully continued his criminal career.
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Inger Johanne Vik
Female
She is a criminal psychologist and lawyer who has worked for the American FBI, but who returned to Norway and Oslo where Detective Inspector Yngvar Stubø turns to her for help with a case. Which he gets – and Vik and Stubø get married too, and eventually have children as well in the novels that Anne Holt has written about the couple. Vik is also the main character in the Swedish TV series <i>Modus</i>.
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Joe (Joseph) O'Loughlin
Male
He has had a successful career as a psychologist. But Joseph (Joe) O'Loughlin has reason to be depressed: he has separated from his wife Julianne, who later dies, and he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Nor is he handsome: he has a long, but pear-shaped nose, watery brown eyes and a pale complexion. He also becomes involved in several cases of severe crime in novels by Michael Robotham.