Sample of literary figures
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Karen Pirie
Female
She is an overweight workaholic, but also exceptionally skilful when it comes to investigating old, unsolved cases in police novels by Val McDermid. Karen Pirie is the head of the Historic Cases Unit with its head office in Fife in Scotland. Her private life is minimal – but includes a sweetheart, her colleague Phil Parhatka, and she mourns deeply when he is killed on duty. But she soon throws herself into the next ‘cold case’.
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Anders Knutas
Male
A detective inspector of thirty years, Knutas is working for the Visby police on the Swedish island of Gotland in a series of books by Mari Jungstedt. Knutas is in his fifties, he is experienced, cautious and detailed in his investigations. He was married to a Danish midwife, Line. They have two children, twins, that in the most recent books are adults. He is devastated by his and Line’s divorce.
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Rebecca Normén
Female
The well-educated Rebecca Normén works – in a trilogy of novels by Anders de la Motte – in part for the bodyguard section of the security service, but also with helping her little brother Henrik Pettersson who has got into great difficulties and is hunted by the police, and others. She is around 35 years old, and is attractive with dark eyes, distinct cheekbones and a little nose. She cares a lot about her private life, and avoids permanent partners.
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Jackson Brodie
Male
He is a middle-aged divorced detective, former soldier and police officer, born in Yorkshire but living in London despite the fact that he has never liked southern England. So he is happy to travel north, and some of Kate Atkinson’s novels about him are set in Scotland. Jackson Brodie’s strength as a detective does not lie in logical reasoning, but in his empathy with the afflicted: the victims of crime and their loved ones.