Photo: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images (2006)
Sample of authors
Westlake, Donald E.
Donald Edwin Westlake was an American author of Irish descent born in Brooklyn, New York. As a small boy, he moved with his family to Yonkers and later to Albany, New York, where he grew up. He enrolled at the State University of New York, Pittsburgh, in 1949, but dropped out the following year. He attempted to study at two more universities, but only for short periods.
Westlake had a couple of...
Literary figures
Piet van der Valk
Gender: Male
An independent, eccentric and short-tempered detective superintendent with the police in Amsterdam, the main character in a suite of police novels by Englishman Nicolas Freeling. Piet van der Valk is arrogant, but also critical of society and empathetic. He is married to Arlette with whom he has two sons and an adopted daughter. He is killed during an investigation, and his wife takes over the...