Sample of literary figures
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Thursday Next
Female
She is called Thursday Next, and is an agent for a state organisation in an absurd, parallel world (i.e. parallel to our own) that is imbued with literary features. She is newly married – we get to know that her husband Landen Parke-Laine drowned when he was three years old – and has a son Friday. Her mother is called Wednesday. Jasper Fforde has written a suite of very different fantasy crime novels about Thursday Next and her world.
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Hafez el-Assad
Male
He is simply called Assad by his colleagues in the crime novels by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen. Despite lacking formal qualifications, he is employed in the police department’s so-called ‘cold-case’ group. He generously shares of his knowledge of, for example, various types of weapons, but is not keen to talk about himself. Assad has his roots in an Arab country, probably Syria, and has certain difficulties with the Danish language.
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Emma Sköld
Female
A young, good-looking, ambitious and career-minded detective inspector, first in Nacka, then in the county CID. Her father, Evert, had been the head of the county police, author Sofie Sarenbrant tells us. Emma Sköld has a daughter, Ines, together with her partner, Kristoffer. When Emma is badly injured in an inexplicable riding accident, and is in a coma for several months, it turns out that somebody wants to take over her life.
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Tom Reynolds
Male
A friendly, calm and humorous police detective in Dublin, who leads the investigations into brutal murders in books by Jo Spain. He is between 40 and 50 years old, with a slightly crooked nose and black hair going grey, and he is happily married to Louise: they have a daughter together, Maria, who is not entirely without problems. Tom Reynolds’ personality is based on the author’s husband, Martin, who is a journalist, however, not a police officer.