Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Camille Verhœven

    Male

    Author Pierre Lemaitre doesn’t make life easy for his middle-aged detective chief inspector, Camille Verhœven, in Paris. His pregnant wife is tortured to death in the first book: in the fourth book, his girlfriend Anne Forestier is almost killed in connection with a robbery. The short and entirely bald police officer, who isn’t always particularly sympathetic, solves the cases; then he resigns.

    Further reading

  • Harry Kvist

    Male

    An odd character and an amateur detective: an ex-boxer and prison inmate who works as a debt-collector, is bi-sexual and drinks too much. The setting is Stockholm in the 1930s in a trio of novels by Martin Holmén. Harry Kvist is single, with few friends (but a lot of acquaintances), not particularly bright, but well-built, and he all too often uses his fists when trouble arises.

    Further reading

  • Kerstin Holm

    Female

    She worked for the Göteborg criminal investigation department and was engaged to a police officer who beat her up. She was transferred to the national crime squad’s A group, which Arne Dahl (pseudonym for Jan Arnald) has written about. When the group was split up, Kestin Holm continued as a police officer, and she has made several guest appearances in Dahl’s books about the international police force OPCOP.

    Further reading

  • Amos Decker

    Male

    A former professional footballer who has been a police officer but who had a breakdown when his wife and daughter were murdered. He is not handsome, but is athletically built and has dark hair. After the murders, Amos Decker stopped taking care of himself, became fat and shabby, and lost his job. He pulled himself together, however, became a private detective and later is employed by the FBI. He has hyperthemesia which means that he can remember in detail everything that happens to him.

    Further reading