Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Martin Beck

    Male

    Few Swedes can have escaped Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm police department. A principal character in Maj Sjöwall’s and Per Wahlöö’s ten police novels, he is the typical meticulous, unhappily married, ulcer-suffering inspector in contemporary crime fiction. He has won international fame through the books and a string of adaptations for film and television.

    Further reading

  • Kerstin Holm

    Female

    She worked for the Göteborg criminal investigation department and was engaged to a police officer who beat her up. She was transferred to the national crime squad’s A group, which Arne Dahl (pseudonym for Jan Arnald) has written about. When the group was split up, Kestin Holm continued as a police officer, and she has made several guest appearances in Dahl’s books about the international police force OPCOP.

    Further reading

  • Martin Holmberg

    Male

    An experienced and calm detective inspector in Lund, southern Sweden. After a first unhappy marriage with a frigid woman, he is now happily married to Kerstin, with whom he has four children. Martin Holmberg is a chain smoker and the central character in a police collective. He has a good relationship with his superior officers, first Bengt Thorén, later Seved Olofsson – as well as Stefan Elg and his other colleagues in the town of Himmelsholm.

    Further reading

  • 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.

    Further reading