Sample of literary figures
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Siv Dahlin
Female
After her divorce, assistant nurse Siv Dahlin leaves Gothenburg and works in lowly-paid jobs in rural areas in Sweden, including Dalarna. She is middle-aged and struggling with a tendency to put on weight. But she is also wise and observant, and when sudden deaths occur in the books by Aino Trosell, Siv Dahlin fortunately doesn’t always rely on the conclusions drawn by the authorities, but always carries out her own investigations.
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John Madden
Male
Scotland Yard detective John Madden suffered from an explosion during the First World War, but nevertheless in 1921 still solves the murder of four persons in the Surrey countryside. After that, he and his wife, Dr Helen Blackwell, settle as farmers in Surrey, but for various reasons Madden nevertheless takes part in investigations of several brutal murders in England during the Thirties and Forties in a suite of novels by Rennie Airth.
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Paul Hjelm
Male
Police officer in Huddinge, Stockholm, who was wrongly suspended and then transferred to the Swedish Police Board’s special A-group unit where he became a central figure. When the group is split up, Paul Hjelm and some of the others are transferred to an international force OPCOP. He is married to Cilla and the couple have two children. The books about him are written by Arne Dahl (pseudonym for Jan Arnald).
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Harry Kvist
Male
An odd character and an amateur detective: an ex-boxer and prison inmate who works as a debt-collector, is bi-sexual and drinks too much. The setting is Stockholm in the 1930s in a trio of novels by Martin Holmén. Harry Kvist is single, with few friends (but a lot of acquaintances), not particularly bright, but well-built, and he all too often uses his fists when trouble arises.