Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Jackson Lamb

    Male

    Misanthropic boss of Slough House, a department for discharged spies and agents in the British MI5. Jackson Lamb, a central figure in a suite of novels by Mick Herron, is a former spy who has gone to seed. He is tall, has an ‘offensive’ face, is cynical and sarcastic, a chain smoker and is careless about his personal hygiene. This doesn’t prevent him and his department from managing to solve several sensitive spy cases.

    Further reading

  • Martin Beck

    Male

    Few Swedes can have escaped Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm police department. A principal character in Maj Sjöwall’s and Per Wahlöö’s ten police novels, he is the typical meticulous, unhappily married, ulcer-suffering inspector in contemporary crime fiction. He has won international fame through the books and a string of adaptations for film and television.

    Further reading

  • John March

    Male

    He was born into a family of affluent bankers who disown him on account of his choice of profession: he has been a rural sheriff for three years, and then a private detective in New York. After the death of his wife, things went downhill for him, but author Peter Spiegelman lets (the approximately 180 cm tall) John March sober up, start drinking orange juice and go out running, as well as manage to acquire strong self-discipline and a new girlfriend, Jane Lu.

    Further reading

  • Anna Holt

    Female

    Anna Holt is a police officer, later commissioner of police, in Stockholm. She is the creation of authors Jan Guillou and Leif G.W. Persson who wrote the screenplay for a series of television episodes about her in the 1990s. Over the years, she has featured in some of the novels each has written independently. Holt is a complex woman, a determined and inventive investigator and a skilled interrogator.

    Further reading