Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Avi (Avraham) Avraham

    Male

    He isn’t so successful and sometimes makes mistakes which make him uncertain and melancholic. But author Dror Mishani describes the short, everyday detective Avraham Avraham in Holon – a suburb of Tel Aviv – as stubborn, and that means he gets results. He is single, spends his evenings in front of the telly, and admires his female boss, Ilana Lis, of whom he is a little afraid.

    Further reading

  • Alex Morrow

    Female

    Morrow is a working class detective from Glasgow. She is the mother of twins and the protagonist in a series of tartan noir books by Denise Mina. Morrow is not always very forthcoming or correct, but she struggles to combine her job with being a mother and against misogynous bosses and colleagues in a city characterised by increasing class differences and violent crime.

    Further reading

  • Conny Sjöberg

    Male

    As an experienced detective chief inspector with Hammarby Police in Stockholm, he leads a well-coordinated team of murder investigators who, for example, deal with cases where children have been hurt. Conny Sjöberg is a middle-aged, unusually ordinary man, happily married to Åsa; they have five children. He is described as handsome, empathetic, sensitive and honest. According to author Carin Gerhardsen, he is partly modelled on her husband Ken.

    Further reading

  • 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.

    Further reading