Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic (2006)
Sample of authors
Ellroy, James
Having revolutionized crime fiction in terms of language and style, James Ellroy is now one of America’s foremost contemporary crime writers. He was born Lee Earle Ellroy in Los Angles. His father, Armand Ellroy, was an accountant who moved in dubious Hollywood circles, for example as Rita Hayworth’s financial advisor. Ellroy’s mother, Geneva "Jean" Hilliker, was a nurse. Both parents were alcoh...
Literary figures
Max Van Larsen
Gender: Male
A depressed, middle-aged detective with a guilty conscience who works in the New York police section for missing persons. Max Van Larsen’s wife and 13-year-old son have died in a traffic accident, and he discovers that he has not known them well enough to be able to mourn them. He is, however, consoled when he meets the cheerful author Sylvia Plotkin, and together they solve the weird cases in t...