Sample of literary figures
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Erlendur
Male
A detective inspector in Reykjavík, and the main character in a row of police novels by Arnaldur Indriðason. Erlendur – his surname, Sveinsson, is rarely named as is customary in Iceland – is a skilful and empathetic police officer, but rather tired and sometimes anxiety-ridden. One reason is that he left his family when the children were small, for reasons that he can’t himself remember. His ex-wife still hates him for this, and both his son and his daughter ended up abusing drugs.
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Joseph Zimmertür
Male
Psychoanalyst who primarily works in Amsterdam, and who has what one can only call a parodically Jewish appearance. But he is described in positive terms by author Frank Heller (pseudonym for Gunnar Serner): Dr Zimmertür is said to be friendly, diplomatic, well-read and with a good general education – and he is a clever detective and a good judge of character. In his private life, he is a bachelor and has no children, and he has friends in the very best circles.
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Terry Quinn
Male
When he worked as a police officer, he accidentally killed a colleague. As a result, the green-eyed Irishman Terry Quinn left the police force and instead got a job in a shop in Silver Spring, Maryland, which sells second-hand paperbacks and vinyl records. However, he also does some extra work as an active assistant to another former policeman, Derek Strange, who is now a private detective, in books by George P. Pelecanos.
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Alex Delaware
Male
Delaware is a child psychologist in Los Angeles who is consulted by the LA police department. He is not satisfied with only the police investigations, and continues on his own in a series of novels by Jonathan Kellerman. Delaware is an intelligent, emotionally insecure person, which comes to the fore in his relationship with his girlfriend Robin Castagna.