Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Mma Makutsi

    Female

    She struggles with her poor skin and unflattering spectacles, but Mma Grace Makutsi has impressively high grades from her secretarial course and is a lady with skin on her nose and a sharp tongue. In Alexander McCall Smith’s suite of novels about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, Mma Makutsi is first employed, but after a while becomes a part-owner of the agency. She is also happily married to Phuti Radiphuti.

    Further reading

  • John Cardinal

    Male

    He has a good name as a police officer and family father when his wife is found dead after what is presumed to be suicide. Besides, Detective Cardinal is, without knowing it himself, suspected of having taken bribes. His name is cleared and he starts to work with cold cases in the fictive town of Algonquin Bay in Ontario in Canada together with his younger colleague Lise Delorme in a suite of crime novels by Giles Blunt.

    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

  • Rebecca Normén

    Female

    The well-educated Rebecca Normén works – in a trilogy of novels by Anders de la Motte – in part for the bodyguard section of the security service, but also with helping her little brother Henrik Pettersson who has got into great difficulties and is hunted by the police, and others. She is around 35 years old, and is attractive with dark eyes, distinct cheekbones and a little nose. She cares a lot about her private life, and avoids permanent partners.

    Further reading