Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Rina Lazarus

    Female

    26 years old, the orthodox Jewess Rina Lazarus is a widow and the single parent of two small boys. In connection with a murder case, she gets to know police officer Peter Decker, and after he has changed religion, she marries him and they have a daughter. Author Faye Kellerman also lets them solve a series of criminal cases, where they take turns at playing the main role, and sometimes share it.

    Further reading

  • Harry Friberg

    Male

    Stieg Trenter based his protagonist Friberg on his friend, the photographer K. W. Gullers. Friberg too is a well-known photographer. He is a cheerful, alert man who loves good food and the company of women. It is not he, however, who solves crime, that is the job of Detective Inspector Vesper Johnson. When Trenter died, his wife Ulla continued the series, allowing Friberg to get married.

    Further reading

  • Maisie Dobbs

    Female

    Young, brave and intelligent private detective who started to work as a domestic when she was only 13 years old. Maisie Dobbs had a benevolent female employer, and got to study nursing and psychology. She fell in love with a doctor who was killed in the First World War, and in 1929 she started her own detective agency. Jacqueline Winspear has written more than a dozen books about her.

    Further reading

  • Salvo Montalbano

    Male

    Commissario Montalbano, named by the author Andrea Camilleri for the Spanish crime writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, was born in Sicily, and he works in the fictional town of Vigàta there. He is short-tempered and stubborn, which causes a great deal of problems, but deep down he is a hardworking, energetic professional who is in a long-distance relationship with his fiancé, Livia Burlando.

    Further reading