Sample of literary figures
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Thóra Gudmundsdóttir
Female
When we meet her in Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s first crime novel, skilful lawyer Þóra Guðmundsdóttir is 36 years old and the single mother of a son Gylfi, 16, and a daughter Sóley. She is divorced from her husband Hannes, but later embarks upon a relationship with the German police officer Matthew Reich. He is blond with long hair, high cheek bones and walnut-shaped blue eyes. And he is also the part-owner of a legal firm in Reykjavik.
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Henry Merrivale
Male
Sir Henry Merrivale is one of the most entertaining, arrogant and easily aroused figures in the world of crime fiction. He has a high position in the British security services and drives government bureaucrats crazy. In addition, he solves a whole row of so-called impossible crimes in stories by Carter Dickson, a pseudonym for John Dickson Carr. Merrivale has a large family, and in physical appearance resembles Winston Churchill.
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Inger Johanne Vik
Female
She is a criminal psychologist and lawyer who has worked for the American FBI, but who returned to Norway and Oslo where Detective Inspector Yngvar Stubø turns to her for help with a case. Which he gets – and Vik and Stubø get married too, and eventually have children as well in the novels that Anne Holt has written about the couple. Vik is also the main character in the Swedish TV series <i>Modus</i>.
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Hercule Poirot
Male
The Belgian private detective Hercule Poirot worked for the Belgian police until Agatha Christie transferred him to England. Poirot is characterised by his vanity, his strong French accent, his egg-shaped head and his impressive moustache, and he solves crime in a string of classic whodunits. Poirot eventually became so famous that <i>The Times</i> published an obituary when Christie killed him off in one of her books.