Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Jane Tennison

    Female

    A British police detective, originally the main character in a TV-series scripted by Lynda La Plante who wrote a handful of novels about her. On TV she was portrayed by Helen Mirren, and is thus described like her in the books: a middle-aged, well-groomed woman, who is also a tough and realistically portrayed police officer. Later, La Plante has written a series of novels that describe Tennison’s first years in the police force.

    Further reading

  • Roy Grace

    Male

    Detective Superintendent in Brighton, 40+. When he isn’t solving murders in a number of books by Peter James, he is searching for his wife, Sandy. She vanished without trace on his 30th birthday, and when he does finally succeed in tracing her, he discovers that he has a son, Bruno. Roy Grace has short, blond hair, a somewhat bent nose, and he drives an Aston Martin. He eventually has a new partner, Cloe, and yet another child.

    Further reading

  • Flavia de Luce

    Female

    In the 1950s, the motherless Flavia de Luce was not highly regarded by her father and sisters. She was indeed a rather ordinary and everyday 11-12-year-old (with dental braces), but mature for her age, and determined too, with a mind of her own and smart, and she busied herself with nasty-smelling chemistry experiments. Besides, she solved murders – for which the police resented her – in the books that Alan Bradley has written about her.

    Further reading

  • Alex Cross

    Male

    After several years as a widower and a single father with three children, the Afro-American police detective Alex Cross married Brianna ‘Bree’ Stone. But he refused to leave the slum district in Washington where the family lives and where he does charity work; but he did exchange his Porsche for a Mercedes. He is athletically built, has a PhD in Psychology and is the main character in a suite of police novels by James Patterson.

    Further reading