Sample of literary figures
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Nikki Liska
Female
Female police officer in Minneapolis, divorced with two teenaged sons, and together with colleague Sam Kovac the main character in a suite of crime novels by Tami Hoag. Nikki Liska has a sharp tongue, is tough and has quite a sense of humour. She gets on well with the older Kovac, and they miss each other – so they continue to cooperate – when she is moved to a cold-case group to be able to have more time with her sons.
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Dave Gurney
Male
A well-built police detective in New York who commands respect, renowned for having caught several serial murderers, who retires already when he is about 50 years old. He moves to the countryside with his wife Madeleine and their son, but can’t resist from privately investigating murders. He admits that this affects his family life, and thus always has a bad conscience, according to his creator John Verdon.
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Fran Hunter
Female
Single mother, artist and teacher who settles on the Shetland Islands so that her daughter Cassie can get to know her father, Fran’s former husband, who is from the islands. However, Fran finds herself in a murder mystery and meets police officer Jimmy Perez with whom she starts a relationship. The books about Hunter and Perez gave author Ann Cleeves her breakthrough – despite the tragic end to the love story.
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Judy Hammer
Female
Superintendent Judy Hammer is head of a police department in North Carolina, Virginia, where she has to deal with both city crime and stubborn islanders in a short suite of novels by Patricia Cornwell. Hammer is a middle-aged, unhappily married but very fond of her young colleague Andy Brazil, who becomes her right hand. In the books about them, realistic police work is combined with some less realistic elements.