Photo: Louis Monier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images (1999)
Sample of authors
Crumley, James
The American author and teacher James Arthur Crumley never reached bestseller status. However, he was instrumental in the development of hardboiled crime fiction from the 1970s onwards.
Crumley was born at Three Rivers, southern Texas. His father was an oil field foreman and his mother a waitress. The family was poor; his mother forced her son to attend church, but she never went herself since...
Literary figures
Derek Strange
Gender: Male
Former police officer who has made a career change and become a private detective in a suite of novels by George P. Pelecanos. He is well-built, with grey hair and beard, and loves music. He has a sporadic relationship with his assistant Janine Baker, and is a ‘reserve dad’ for her son, Lionel. Derek Strange lives alone with his dog, Greco, a boxer. He is sometimes greatly helped by another for...