Sample of literary figures
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Nestor Burma
Male
Private eye Nestor Burma is a famous character in French 20th century crime fiction. He runs his own detective agency, Fiat Lux, in Paris with his secretary Hélène Chatelain, who is hopelessly in love with him. They feature in a string of hardboiled, humorous books by Léo Malet. Burma also features in films, television dramas and a cartoon.
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Maria Kallio
Female
She was only 23 when she got her first job with the police, but she has worked her way up to a senior post in the criminal investigation department in the Finnish town of Esbo. She has also grown older in Leena Lehtolainen’s books about her, got married to Antti Johannes Sarkela and had children. With her red hair and in good physical condition, Mario Kallio is a tough (and if necessary even harsh) feminist who appreciates a good whisky – in reasonable measures.
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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.
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Guido Brunetti
Male
Commissario (Detective Superintendent) Brunetti in the Italian state police, stationed in Venice, solves murder cases in a number of books by American author Donna Leon, herself resident in the city. Brunetti is married to Paola, daughter in an aristocratic family and a university lecturer, and has a lively family life which includes children and his own as well as his wife’s relatives. He also battles against the Italian bureaucracy which doesn’t exactly facilitate his work.