Sample of literary figures
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Michael McLoughlin
Male
An older, somewhat overweight police officer in Dublin, who after his retirement has bought a house in a bathing resort outside the town. He is single – but not uninterested in women – and his immediate family is small: his mother, who lives in an old people’s home, and a sister. His father, who was also a police officer, was killed on duty. As a pensioner, Michael McLoughlin is reluctantly involved in some crime cases in novels by Julie Parsons.
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Tiny (Thobela) Mpayipheli
Male
South African warrior from the Xhosa tribe, renowned freedom-fighter – former ANC soldier – but also a Stasi agent and assassin for the KGB. He is the son of a peaceful pastor, and according to author Deon Meyer is a giant of a man with very dark skin and dazzlingly white teeth. Thobela ‘Tiny’ Mpayipheli is a skilled rugby player and for a while lives together with Miriam Nzululwazi, whose death hits him hard.
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Meyer Meyer
Male
Max Meyer, of Polish-Jewish extraction, had a curious sense of humour: he named his son Meyer Meyer. The name contributed to the boy becoming the victim of bullies in school. As an adult, he turned completely bald, became a police detective, patient, and is married to the motherly Sarah with whom he has three children. He works in the 87th police district in Isola in police novels by Ed McBain (pseudonym for Evan Hunter).
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Aurelio Zen
Male
Detective Inspector Zen is a loner based in Rome, but he solves crime all over Italy. He may seem clumsy, but his determination and laissez-faire attitude to police protocol means that he is both successful and unpopular with his superiors. Aurelio Zen featured in one book by the British author Michael Dibdin, but he became so popular that Dibdin wrote another ten about him.