Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Vesper Johnson

    Male

    Detective Inspector Vesper Johnson is a unique, and very entertaining, character. He is vain with a “beaver” face and rakish moustache; he wears high heels and dyes his hair. Johnson solves crime in a string of novels by Stieg Trenter in which the protagonist is the photographer Harry Friberg. After Trenter’s death, his wife Ulla continued to write her own books about Friberg and Johnson.

    Further reading

  • Tommy Beresford

    Male

    The red-headed Thomas ‘Tommy’ Beresford is something of an unimaginative but stubborn Englishman, who took part in the First World War and was wounded twice. He subsequently married his childhood friend Prudence ‘Tuppence’ Cowley, and they have two children and adopt a third. Together, the couple solve a number of cases with good humour and entertaining dialogues in four novels and a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie.

    Further reading

  • 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

  • Amanda Pharrell

    Female

    One night as a college student, Amanda Pharrell had a nightmare in which she was being raped. In the darkness of her room she defended herself, and ended up stabbing someone to death – a young woman. Having spent seven years in prison, Amanda Pharrell has now reinvented herself as a private detective in a sparsely populated corner of Australia. Her Author Candice Fox describes her as being petite with blue eyes and orange hair.

    Further reading