Sample of literary figures
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Mma Makutsi
Female
She struggles with her poor skin and unflattering spectacles, but Mma Grace Makutsi has impressively high grades from her secretarial course and is a lady with skin on her nose and a sharp tongue. In Alexander McCall Smith’s suite of novels about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, Mma Makutsi is first employed, but after a while becomes a part-owner of the agency. She is also happily married to Phuti Radiphuti.
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Philip Marlowe
Male
Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe is the archetype of the hardboiled American private eye. Many subsequent authors of crime fiction have found inspiration in the lonesome, brooding detective. Marlowe is a former investigator at the district attorney’s office of Los Angeles County, he is well read, interested in social issues, and he moves as effortlessly in the upper echelons of society as in back alleys and shady bars thanks to his wisecracking repartee.
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Avi (Avraham) Avraham
Male
He isn’t so successful and sometimes makes mistakes which make him uncertain and melancholic. But author Dror Mishani describes the short, everyday detective Avraham Avraham in Holon – a suburb of Tel Aviv – as stubborn, and that means he gets results. He is single, spends his evenings in front of the telly, and admires his female boss, Ilana Lis, of whom he is a little afraid.
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Reginald Wexford
Male
Inspector Reginald “Reg” Wexford, who operates in the fictional town of Kingsmarkham in Sussex, was a traditional detective when Ruth Rendell first introduced him. He is overweight and has a foul temper, which leads to conflicts with his superiors, but he has a pleasant and understanding family. Wexford has become more tolerant over the years and has developed into a major authority on human character.