Meny

Literary figures

Sample of literary figures

  • Jules-Joseph Maigret

    Male

    French detective inspector and something of an icon within the genre. Maigret was a farmer’s boy who became a cop by chance and quickly earned himself an office at the Paris police headquarters at Quai des Orfèvres. Georges Simenon’s books do not only follow the inspector’s investigations, but also his private life, including a happy, but childless, marriage.

    Further reading

  • Siri Bergman

    Female

    Psychologist and psycho-therapist Siri Bergman, 30-something years old, lives alone in a converted summer cottage on Värmdö island near Stockholm, since her husband drowned. She eventually can move on after her loss, embarks on a relationship with police officer Markus and is given a role in the police profiling group. But her past haunts her in a suite of crime novels by the sisters Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff.

    Further reading

  • Thomas Carnacki

    Male

    English private detective who has certain similarities with Sherlock Holmes. Thomas Carnacki (his first name is rarely mentioned) doesn’t, however, only chase ordinary criminals, but also ghosts and other supernatural beings. He tells some friends about his cases while he keenly smokes his pipe. William Hope Hodgson only wrote nine short stories about Carnacki, but that sufficed to make the character classic.

    Further reading

  • Rebecka Martinsson

    Female

    Beautiful and well-educated lawyer – who first works in a law firm and later becomes a public prosecutor – who has a central role in all of Åsa Larsson’s crime stories. In the first books, Rebecka Martinsson is living in Stockholm, but her work takes her to Kiruna, where she grew up, and she later moves back there. She has quite a lot of problems at work as well as in her private life, but is supported by friends, including the police officer Anna-Maria Mella.

    Further reading