Meny

Literary figures

Sample of literary figures

  • Maisie Dobbs

    Female

    Young, brave and intelligent private detective who started to work as a domestic when she was only 13 years old. Maisie Dobbs had a benevolent female employer, and got to study nursing and psychology. She fell in love with a doctor who was killed in the First World War, and in 1929 she started her own detective agency. Jacqueline Winspear has written more than a dozen books about her.

    Further reading

  • Maria Wern

    Female

    Maria Wern is a young sergeant who balances crime investigations with family life, including an insufferable husband. She later moves to the island of Gotland where she continues to solve crime. The author, Anna Jansson, has also written a number of young adult detective novels that feature Wern’s son, Emil.

    Further reading

  • Jackson Brodie

    Male

    He is a middle-aged divorced detective, former soldier and police officer, born in Yorkshire but living in London despite the fact that he has never liked southern England. So he is happy to travel north, and some of Kate Atkinson’s novels about him are set in Scotland. Jackson Brodie’s strength as a detective does not lie in logical reasoning, but in his empathy with the afflicted: the victims of crime and their loved ones.

    Further reading

  • James Bond

    Male

    Agent 007 James Bond is exceptionally famous for being a secret agent. He works for the British Secret Service and is sent on missions all over the world. He has some expensive habits and is a womanizer, but his background is obscure. He was created by Ian Fleming, but several other authors have included him in their work; among them are Kingsley Amis, Jefferey Deaver and John Gardner.

    Further reading