Sample of literary figures
-
Gunnar Barbarotti
Male
His father was Italian, his mother Swedish – and one of the few things they were successful with was their son’s name. Gunnar Barbarotti is a police detective in the fictive Swedish town of Kymlinge. He is a reflecting gentleman with an everyday appearance who is unlucky in his relationships: his first wife leaves him, his second wife dies in the books by Håkan Nesser. When alone, Barbarotti has long conversations with God.
-
Jonny Lilja
Male
He is a police officer, but also a gambling addict which means he has to help the mafia. That is not the only problem for Detective Inspector Jonny Lilja in Malmö. When his ex-wife Lena is murdered, he becomes a suspect. However, he pulls himself together, stops gambling and then moves in with his adoptive daughter, Maria. He is, according to author Olle Lönneaus, middle-aged, a bit shabby-looking, with a lined face and wide mouth.
-
Karen Pirie
Female
She is an overweight workaholic, but also exceptionally skilful when it comes to investigating old, unsolved cases in police novels by Val McDermid. Karen Pirie is the head of the Historic Cases Unit with its head office in Fife in Scotland. Her private life is minimal – but includes a sweetheart, her colleague Phil Parhatka, and she mourns deeply when he is killed on duty. But she soon throws herself into the next ‘cold case’.
-
Salvo Montalbano
Male
Commissario Montalbano, named by the author Andrea Camilleri for the Spanish crime writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, was born in Sicily, and he works in the fictional town of Vigàta there. He is short-tempered and stubborn, which causes a great deal of problems, but deep down he is a hardworking, energetic professional who is in a long-distance relationship with his fiancé, Livia Burlando.