Meny

Literary figures

Sample of literary figures

  • Sam Kovac

    Male

    Tough, middle-aged police officer in Minneapolis, who doesn’t like following rules and regulations, but is still a competent policeman, claims author Tami Hoag. He is especially successful when he gets the younger, quick-thinking Nikki Liska as a colleague, and when they are forced to work each on their own, they both feel dissatisfied. Sam Kovac has two marriages behind him, and lives so totally for his work, that he doesn’t even clean his flat…

    Further reading

  • Nestor Burma

    Male

    Private eye Nestor Burma is a famous character in French 20th century crime fiction. He runs his own detective agency, Fiat Lux, in Paris with his secretary Hélène Chatelain, who is hopelessly in love with him. They feature in a string of hardboiled, humorous books by Léo Malet. Burma also features in films, television dramas and a cartoon.

    Further reading

  • 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.

    Further reading

  • Gunnar Mellberg

    Male

    A detective inspector, later chief inspector, in Lund, Sweden. He is tall, well-built, smokes a pipe and is interested in gardening. With his wife, he has four children. K. Arne Blom has written five novels (and a book for people with reading impediments) about Gunnar Mellberg. In the first novels, he has a minor yet important role, in the final one it is revealed that he is the son of one of Blom’s main characters, the security agent Loman.

    Further reading