Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Jimmy Perez

    Male

    Despite the surname, members of the Perez family have lived on the Shetland Islands for several hundred years – they are descendants of shipwrecked Spaniards. He is a police officer, and the main character in a number of police procedurals by Ann Cleeves. Perez starts a relationship with the single mother Fran Hunter in the first book, and suffers badly when he later loses her. He does, however, surface again and returns in several books.

    Further reading

  • Inger Johanne Vik

    Female

    She is a criminal psychologist and lawyer who has worked for the American FBI, but who returned to Norway and Oslo where Detective Inspector Yngvar Stubø turns to her for help with a case. Which he gets – and Vik and Stubø get married too, and eventually have children as well in the novels that Anne Holt has written about the couple. Vik is also the main character in the Swedish TV series <i>Modus</i>.

    Further reading

  • Tony Hill

    Male

    Anthony ‘Tony’ Hill is a qualified psychologist as well as a skilful ‘profiler’ often used by the police in Bradford in a suite of crime novels by Val McDermid. He works with Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan, and they have a complicated private relationship. Hill is sickly, sexually dysfunctional and there are details that mention an unhappy and mentally stressful childhood and youth.

    Further reading

  • William of Baskerville

    Male

    The British Franciscan monk from Baskerville is the main character in just one novel – on the other hand, it is the classic <i>The Name of the Rose</i> by Umberto Eco. It is not just the name Baskerville which makes one think of Sherlock Holmes: William’s own ‘Watson’, Adso, describes him as tall, thin, strong, supple, with a crooked nose and sharp eyes, and aged around fifty. And who was a brilliant logician as early as the 14th century…

    Further reading