Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Kristina Vendel

    Female

    Female detective inspector with the police in Huddinge, Stockholm. Her father had fled from East Germany to Sweden; Kristina Vendel’s marriage to Johan is in trouble and eventually breaks up. She has light hair, grey-green eyes, and studied Philosophy before she started at Police College. She has a tough time at work, and is often abused in several ways, Theodor Kallifatides tells us.

    Further reading

  • V.I. Warshawski

    Female

    Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski is a hardboiled private detective in Chicago. She often rescues people on the margins of society and she often she rails against crooked politicians, bigotry, and toned-down political scandals. Her father is Polish and her mother was Jewish – and she has more lovers than she has friends according to the author, Sara Paretsky.

    Further reading

  • Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg

    Male

    Adamsberg is a Paris detective inspector. His pace is slow, he is contemplative, he is well acquainted with the human character, he relies on his intuition, and he solves every case he is confronted with. These are generally full of mysteries, but Adamsberg’s unorthodox methods and competent colleagues are a great help to him. Adamsberg is the creation of Fred Vargas, pseudonym for the French author Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau.

    Further reading

  • Mma Ramotswe

    Female

    In Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, Mma Precious Ramotswe runs The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. The cases she works with, don’t usually concern major crimes, but are more about solving everyday problems for the clients. Mma Ratmotswe loves tea and her husband, the kind J.L.B. Matekoni, as well as their two adoptive children: all tenderly described by the Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith.

    Further reading