Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images (2009)
Sample of authors
Koontz, Dean R.
Dean Ray Koontz is an American author of suspense literature. He was born in Everett, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a dysfunctional family with a violent, alcoholic father and a suppressed mother. He found comfort in reading and watching movies, and he began to write short stories, which he sold to friends and relatives when he was eight years old. He attended Shippensburg State College (now...
Literary figures
A.J. Raffles
Gender: Male
He is an expert in two areas – cricket and theft. A.J. (as he is usually called) Raffles is the most famous literary master thief of all time, and to this day people speak of a “Raffles heist” when someone commits a rare and sophisticated theft. He is a man of the world, skilled at disguise, and he moves in the best circles. However, E.W. Hornung finally lets him die a hero’s death in the Boer War...