Photo: Bettmann / Getty Images
Sample of authors
Macdonald, Ross
Ross Macdonald is a pseudonym for the American-Canadian crime writer Kenneth Millar. He was born in Los Gatos, California, but he grew up in his parents’ native Canada. His parents divorced shortly after the family moved there, and during childhood Macdonald constantly changed homes, living with his mother who was in poor health. He later wrote that he had figured out that he, up until the age o...
Literary figures
Cordelia Gray
Gender: Female
A young private detective in only two novels by P.D. James; many readers have complained that there weren’t any more. She grew up with her foster parents – her mother died an hour after the birth of her daughter – and as an adult became the secretary to the private detective Bernie G. Pryde. When he died of cancer, Cordelia Gray inherited his agency. She is attractive, but despite her successes sh...