Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Maureen O’Donnell

    Female

    She is the protagonist in the prize-winning Garnethill trilogy by the Scottish crime writer Denise Mina. Young Maureen is a human wreck: sexually abused by her father, her mother an alcoholic, her brother a drug dealer. She has spent time in a mental hospital, and started a relationship with her psychiatrist. But she is stubborn and determined, and struggles to solve the problems and crimes she comes across.

    Further reading

  • Siri Bergman

    Female

    Psychologist and psycho-therapist Siri Bergman, 30-something years old, lives alone in a converted summer cottage on Värmdö island near Stockholm, since her husband drowned. She eventually can move on after her loss, embarks on a relationship with police officer Markus and is given a role in the police profiling group. But her past haunts her in a suite of crime novels by the sisters Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff.

    Further reading

  • Lord Peter Wimsey

    Male

    The English aristocrat (he is the second son of a duke), bibliophile and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is one of the great men of crime fiction and principal character in a long line of classical stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. Witty and erudite, he solves crime with the help of logic, his butler, Bunter, and his friend (later brother-in-law) Inspector Charles Parker.

    Further reading

  • V.I. Warshawski

    Female

    Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski is a hardboiled private detective in Chicago. She often rescues people on the margins of society and she often she rails against crooked politicians, bigotry, and toned-down political scandals. Her father is Polish and her mother was Jewish – and she has more lovers than she has friends according to the author, Sara Paretsky.

    Further reading