Sample of literary figures
-
Gunnar Mellberg
Male
A detective inspector, later chief inspector, in Lund, Sweden. He is tall, well-built, smokes a pipe and is interested in gardening. With his wife, he has four children. K. Arne Blom has written five novels (and a book for people with reading impediments) about Gunnar Mellberg. In the first novels, he has a minor yet important role, in the final one it is revealed that he is the son of one of Blom’s main characters, the security agent Loman.
-
Varg Veum
Male
With his books about the private detective Varg Veum, author Gunnar Staalesen transferred American hardboiled noir to a Scandinavian setting – Bergen in Norway. Veum is one of the best-known fictional characters in Norway; he features in several television productions as well as a comic strip. He operates in widely different social settings and is prone to commenting on current affairs.
-
Asbjørn Krag
Male
Norwegian police officer, who also works as a private detective, created by Stein Riverton (pseudonym for Sven Elvestad). Asbjørn Krag works in Kristiania/Oslo, but solves cases in various parts of Norway. He is athletically built, with an angular face, and works as much with his head as with his muscles. He is unmarried, or rather, married to his work. His literary colleague Knut Gribb is based on Krag.
-
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’.