Zygmunt Miloszewski is Poland's Number One crime writer. In his latest novel, Rage, the brooding but brilliant Prosecutor Szacki is on a mission to track down the perpetrator behind a series of violent attacks on domestic abusers. The situation gets personal when Szacki's own daughter is captured and held hostage. Below Zygmunt Miloszewski shares his thoughts about father/daughter relationships in fiction. Rage by Zygmunt Miloszewski is out now (£8.99, Amazon Crossing) Available to order from Amazon or buy from a local bookshop

Zygmunt Miłoszewski

Zygmunt Miłoszewski

Boy, I thought it would be easy to come up with ten fictional fathers and daughters. I gave myself half an hour to accomplish this easy task, made a coffee, stretched my fingers over the keyboard and started picking the best father-and-daughter couples out of the abyss of fiction. And I hit a wall instantly, just like that. Bam.

The fathers and daughters simply weren't there. Somehow they had escaped the abyss of fiction.

All right, I know what you're thinking. The guy's exaggerating, there are plenty of daughters and fathers everywhere. Well, of course there are, but I was looking for books and films in which this particular relationship was the engine driving the story, not just a bit of background decor. Being a feminist I also wanted to find some stories that are told from the daughter's perspective, where the daughter is in fact a heroine, not just a piece of furniture, a mirror put there to reflect her father's emotional depths.

Now consider the above and think again. Am I still exaggerating?

In the course of my abysmal journey I met some old friends to whom I would like to give honourable mention. Shylock and Jessica from The Merchant of Venice briefly attracted my attention, but their relationship is too minor compared with the rest of the play, so I sailed off to the nearby harbour of King Lear and his three daughters. They were probably the most tempting, but far too obvious, and ultimately I regard them as telling a Shakespearean tale of power and madness rather than depicting the emotional tangle between a father and his daughters. And I never liked the fact that both Lear and Cordelia die at the end anyway. Speaking of death, I also ran into the dark, silent ship of the Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski, who wrote Laments, a series of beautiful elegies in memory of his daughter Ursula, who died at the age of two. Being dead, little Ursula is hardly able to play the role of heroine, so I left them alone. I voyaged away from Slavic poetry to modern pop culture, and thought for a while about Armageddon, a classic sci-fi film in which Bruce Willis saves the world, and it's pretty obvious that saving a world is just the collateral damage that comes with saving his daughter. Eventually Bruce blows himself up on a meteorite to achieve his aims, and what he sees just before the big bang are memories of his little Liv Tyler. I know, it's way too cheap. I left them behind. As I was already in the States, I sailed to the island of Great American Novels for an encounter with:

Scout and Atticus Finch ( To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

Scout and Atticus were the first two to board my ship. Their relationship is one of the most touching in literature, the novel is perfect, and it's brilliantly told from Scout's perspective. I realize I must have read this novel in a different way from the American audience. Across the pond this is a sacred tale about racial inequality, important social commentary and so on, but for me this is a novel about a perfect father. And I think nowadays we need Atticus more than ever. When all the daddies in their fifties are trying to be their children's cool, hip pals, it's worth looking up to someone who's quite simply calm, wise and just. That's why I'm putting these two in a first class cabin, next to:

Amy and William Dorrit ( Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens)

Oh, haven't I mentioned them before? Of course they have to be here, Dickens's characters always keep me company, I love everything he wrote. And I decided to choose this couple over another British classic, Elizabeth Bennet and her daddy from Pride and Prejudice. Little Dorrit teaches us one important lesson: daughter, you must part ways with your pa one day. The sooner, the better. Otherwise, even if you've been kind to him, taken care of him in jail and suffered poverty for his sake, he may eventually turn out to be a lousy parent.

Let's stay in the 19th century for a while to invite:

Catherine and Dr. Sloper ( Washington Square by Henry James)

Even though I'm more inclined to choose a novel over a film adaptation, whenever I think about Catherine and her father, I always visualize scenes from Agnieszka Holland's screen version, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney. Why? Partly because I love Agnieszka Holland's subtle narration, partly because I cannot imagine a better Dr. Sloper than Albert Finney, and partly because this film has a subtly feminist approach that gives the story extra depth. Personally I find this the strongest and most touching depiction of the relationship between a daughter and her father. Love entangled with addiction, protection with cruel domination, respect with contempt. "Even while she felt that what he said went so terribly against her, she admired his neatness and nobleness of expression."

All right, that's enough of the old stuff. Being the father of a daughter myself I also explored the turquoise bay of children's fiction. Waved to Manny and Peaches from Ice Age, and to Fiona and King Harold from Shrek; I almost took aboard Gru and his three daughters from wonderful Despicable Me, but that was when I saw another animated couple and decided to take on board:

Mavis & Count Dracula ( Hotel Transylvania 1 & 2)

This is one of the funniest family animated movies I've ever seen, and definitely the most accurate when it comes to depicting both the tender and the humorous part of the relationship between a father and his teenage daughter. And I know what I'm saying â€' my daughter has just turned 18. Mavis in HT turns 118, meets a guy who is NOT a monster, and tries to break free of her loving, over-protective vampire daddy. The story gets even better in HT2, when Dracula becomes a grandpa and Mavis discovers the "real" world. Smart and exhilaratingly funny.

And finally, on a small rocky island in the Stockholm Archipelago I found my favourite couple:

Ronia and Matt ( Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren)

The longer I live the more I believe Astrid Lindgren was one of the greatest writers of all time. Her books were read to me, then they were among my first literary adventures as a reader, then I read them to my own children, and each time my admiration for their ingenious wisdom grew. Matt is the chief of a clan of robbers in a fantasy world, and Ronia is his only, teenage child. The story includes a castle split in half by lightning, two rival families, forbidden love and a dangerous forest filled with mythical Nordic wildlife, but above all it's the tale of a daughter fighting to find her own way in life, and a father fighting to keep everything unchanged. And what a surprise, they don't kill each other, neither of them dies, but instead they learn that this parting of the ways, which is engraved into every relationship between father and daughter from the very start, however painful, also marks a beautiful new beginning.

Rage by Zygmunt Miloszewski is out now (£8.99, Amazon Crossing) Available to order from Amazon or buy from a local bookshop