Sample of literary figures
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Guido Brunetti
Male
Commissario (Detective Superintendent) Brunetti in the Italian state police, stationed in Venice, solves murder cases in a number of books by American author Donna Leon, herself resident in the city. Brunetti is married to Paola, daughter in an aristocratic family and a university lecturer, and has a lively family life which includes children and his own as well as his wife’s relatives. He also battles against the Italian bureaucracy which doesn’t exactly facilitate his work.
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Aurelio Zen
Male
Detective Inspector Zen is a loner based in Rome, but he solves crime all over Italy. He may seem clumsy, but his determination and laissez-faire attitude to police protocol means that he is both successful and unpopular with his superiors. Aurelio Zen featured in one book by the British author Michael Dibdin, but he became so popular that Dibdin wrote another ten about him.
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Ruth Galloway
Female
Her age is 40+ and she lives with her daughter Kate and her cat close to the sea in Norfolk. But forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway has a lot of friends, including the married detective chief inspector, Harry Nelson, the father of her daughter. She is independent, humorous, attractive with a nice figure – she weighs around 80 kg. Elly Griffiths (pseudonym for Domenica Maxted) has written a suite of detective stories about her.
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Svend Foyn
Male
Lawyer and a skilled amateur detective who lives in the Norwegian town of Tønsberg, like his creator Jan Mehlum. Svend Foyn is divorced and has a teenaged daughter, loves music and books and easily becomes sentimental. His appearance is not particularly noticeable, but he is quite tall – more than 190 cm – and struggles to hold his weight under 90 kilos. His best female friend is Hulda – a Saint Bernhard dog.