Sample of literary figures
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Francis Hancock
Male
His father was an Englishman, his mother from India. Francis Hancock himself is a funeral director in London during the Second World War, when the Germans bombed the city. His experiences during the First World War, when he was a soldier, have given him mental problems. He is very withdrawn, which doesn’t, however, prevent him from being a clever – albeit reluctant – amateur detective in a suite of books by Barbara Nadel.
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Hanne Wilhelmsen
Female
Hanne Wilhemsen comes from a family of academics, and her father is a professor. She surprises and annoys her family by becoming a police officer. Wilhelmsen is a lesbian, she is good looking and she rides a pink Harley Davidson until she is shot and ends up in a wheelchair. Anne Holt has written a string of internationally acclaimed novels about Wilhelmsen’s professional and private life.
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Yashim Togalu
Male
He is tall, well-built, aged between 30 and 40, with curly black hair and a nice moustache. He is also a eunuch, and he investigates murders and other crimes in 19th century Istanbul on the orders of the sultan, whom he faithfully serves. Yashim Togalu is not uninterested in women, according to author Jason Goodwin, but he understandably prefers to devote his time to cooking, French novels and mysteries.
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Easy (Ezekiel) Rawlins
Male
Afro-American war veteran, who in the late 1940s established himself as a private detective in Los Angeles. In the books by Walter Mosley we get to follow his life during the decades that follow. For example, Ezekiel Porterhouse ‘Easy’ Rawlins gets married to Regina, they have a daughter Edna and adopt the dumb Jesus. Easy is a pleasant, quick-thinking and nice-looking man and he uses fantastic, contemporary slang.