Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • 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.

    Further reading

  • 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.

    Further reading

  • Lars Martin Johansson

    Male

    Johansson is head of the Swedish Police. He first appears in Leif G. W. Persson’s first book <i>Grisfesten</i> and then returns in a string of novels by the author. He was previously married to Gunilla; they have two children together. After a few years he marries Pia who is 20 years younger. He is a passionate hunter and eventually dies of a stroke.

    Further reading

  • Carol Jordan

    Female

    Carol Jordan is a detective at the head of a special task force that investigates violent crime in the fictional town of Bradfield, England. She collaborates with the profiler Tony Hill in a series of novels by Val McDermid. They have a fraught personal relationship that ends when Jordan leaves the profession after a breakdown following the murder of her brother. She later makes a comeback and continues to work with Hill.

    Further reading