Meny

Sample of literary figures

  • Kurt Wallander

    Male

    Wallander lives and works in Ystad, southern Sweden. But it does not prevent him from leading investigations of especially difficult cases, chasing serial killers and international criminals. Through Henning Mankell’s books as well as adaptations for film and television, he has become a popular figure and one of Sweden’s best-known fictional characters worldwide.

    Further reading

  • Auguste Dupin

    Male

    One of the most famous literary figures of all times, and the model for a whole row of fictive problem-solvers – including Sherlock Holmes. This despite the fact that <i>chevalier</i> Auguste Dupin features in only three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. During the daytime, he shuts himself up in his home, smokes and reads; at night, he often wanders along the streets in his home city, Paris.

    Further reading

  • Martine Poirot

    Female

    An investigating judge in the fictive little Belgian town Villette-sur-Meuse, where she lives with her husband, the Swedish Professor Thomas Héger, a specialist in Medieval History, and (eventually) their two children. Martine Poirot – the author Ingrid Hedström is very fond of whodunnnits à la Agatha Christie – is 34 years old when we meet her for the first time. She is attractive and picks her clothes carefully as well as being a skilful and stubborn crime investigator.

    Further reading

  • Dudley Smith

    Male

    Police officer in Los Angeles in four of James Ellroy’s novels. Dudley Smith was born in Ireland, he is tall and broad shouldered, and goes all in brown, one could say: he has brown hair cut very short, brown eyes and he usually wears a shabby, brown suit. Few police officers in crime fiction have been described as so unsympathetic: he is an egoistic and violent bully and, it turns out, a murderer. And he is happy with that!

    Further reading