Sample of literary figures
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Jack Reacher
Male
He is a former officer in the US Army military police, but after being discharged he lives as a vagabond who – usually in a violent manner – solves criminal cases and other problems in books by Lee Child. The well-built Reacher’s parents and only brother are dead, and he steers clear of permanent relationships. He sometimes suffers from claustrophobia and likes to listen to music that he can memorise in an unusual way.
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Jakob Studer
Male
Perhaps the most famous problem solver in German-language crime fiction is Wachtmeister (approx: sergeant) Jakob Studer, a single elderly gentleman, overweight, with a pale, gaunt face and a heavy moustache. He was created by Swiss-Austrian Friedrich Glauser, is mainly active in the countryside and in small towns and solves his cases with the help of intuition and human knowledge.
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Annika Bengtzon
Female
Annika Bengtzon is the creation of the Swedish author and journalist Liza Marklund and possibly Sweden’s best-known journalist. She is married with two children, but she is also a highly competent crime reporter with a bad conscience on account of neglecting her family. Bengtzon is a complex woman who can be hard and tough one minute and reduced to tears the next. Nevertheless, she is portrayed as a highly capable modern professional woman.
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Mervyn Bunter
Male
Second only to Wodehouse’s incomparable Jeeves, Bunter is regarded as the most famous butler of a classic English type. He is Lord Peter Wimsey’s patient and always correct butler in the classic detective stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, and he also carries out with honour some scouting missions. He only loses his temper when the housekeeper washes the dusty, carefully stored bottles of port wine.