Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Erik Winter

    Male

    Winter is a detective inspector in Gothenburg, Sweden. Contrary to most other literary detectives he comes from a wealthy family and is well off. He marries a physician, Angela, and they have a child together in Åke Edwardson’s string of books about him. After a period of hard work, the family moves to Spain, but a couple of years later Winter returns to Gothenburg, without his family, and returns to his former job.

    Further reading

  • 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

  • Erlendur

    Male

    A detective inspector in Reykjavík, and the main character in a row of police novels by Arnaldur Indriðason. Erlendur – his surname, Sveinsson, is rarely named as is customary in Iceland – is a skilful and empathetic police officer, but rather tired and sometimes anxiety-ridden. One reason is that he left his family when the children were small, for reasons that he can’t himself remember. His ex-wife still hates him for this, and both his son and his daughter ended up abusing drugs.

    Further reading

  • Peter Pascoe

    Male

    The well-educated, well brought-up, intelligent but somewhat unimaginative detective Peter Pascoe is the permanent companion to his brusque boss Andy Dalziel in the detective stories by Reginald Hill. Pascoe has problems: apart from Dalziel, he also has a father who has never been able to accept that his son become a policeman instead of a farmer, and he has a wife, Ellie – they have a child together – in a marriage that is in danger of falling apart.

    Further reading