Photo: Geoffrey Swaine/REX /TT (2010)
Sample of authors
King, Laurie R.
American author and theologian, born as Laurie Richardson in Oakland, California. The family moved several times within the state and lived in, among other places, Santa Cruz and San Jose before settling down in Tacoma on the outskirts of Washington in 1961. The parents separated, the mother moved to Saratoga in California and for several years, Laurie R. (Richardson) King shuttled between...
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...