Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Anastasia Kamenskaya

    Female

    The young, later middle-aged, Anastasia Kamenskaya is an analyst and investigator for the Moscow Police Department. She is linguistically gifted and beautiful, but is careless about her appearance and how she dresses. Her kind live-in partner (later her husband) looks after their home and accepts that she is often too tired for sex. She is also the main character in a long suite of novels by Alexandra Marinina (pseudonym for Marina Anatolyevna Alekseyeva).

    Further reading

  • Jimmy Perez

    Male

    Despite the surname, members of the Perez family have lived on the Shetland Islands for several hundred years – they are descendants of shipwrecked Spaniards. He is a police officer, and the main character in a number of police procedurals by Ann Cleeves. Perez starts a relationship with the single mother Fran Hunter in the first book, and suffers badly when he later loses her. He does, however, surface again and returns in several books.

    Further reading

  • Myron Bolitar

    Male

    Promising, attractive basketball player, who damaged his knee and instead sports agent – and an amateur detective. Myran Bolitar solves a row of murder cases, which usually take place in sports circles, in books by Harlan Coben. He often has girlfriends (but only one at a time) as assistants. He also has a nephew, Mickey, who solves cases in a handful of detective stories for young adults in which his uncle features as a minor character.

    Further reading

  • Adam Dalgliesh

    Male

    Adam Dalgliesh is a successful, much respected detective inspector and poet that features in novels by P.D. James. In her first book about him, she spelt his name Dalgleish, which has caused some confusion. He is a typical soft-spoken, straightforward, pragmatic English gentleman who operates more like a classic private detective than a Scotland Yard DI. He conducts himself with ease in all kinds of geographical and social settings.

    Further reading