Sample of literary figures
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Jimmy Perez
Male
Despite the surname, members of the Perez family have lived on the Shetland Islands for several hundred years – they are descendants of shipwrecked Spaniards. He is a police officer, and the main character in a number of police procedurals by Ann Cleeves. Perez starts a relationship with the single mother Fran Hunter in the first book, and suffers badly when he later loses her. He does, however, surface again and returns in several books.
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Maisie Dobbs
Female
Young, brave and intelligent private detective who started to work as a domestic when she was only 13 years old. Maisie Dobbs had a benevolent female employer, and got to study nursing and psychology. She fell in love with a doctor who was killed in the First World War, and in 1929 she started her own detective agency. Jacqueline Winspear has written more than a dozen books about her.
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Harry (Henry) Nelson
Male
Middle-aged detective chief inspector in Norfolk, where he cooperates with forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway in a series of detective stories by Elly Griffiths (pseudonym for Domenica Maxted). Harry Nelson is married to Michelle and has three children with her – but also a daughter with Galloway after a one-night-stand with her. He is tall and dark, with greying hair and has a reputation for being brusque when impatient.
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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.