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Portrait of Derek Raymond Photo: Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images (1990)

Sample of authors

Raymond, Derek

English author, who during a Bohemian and wandering life occupied himself with a number of different jobs and activities, a by-no-means small part of them criminal. This is also reflected in his books: he is known as a pioneer in the crime-literature sub-genre called ‘British noir’, and which is usually set in environments and among people at the bottom of society. The books have been criticised f...

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Literary figures

John Silence

Gender: Male

Algernon Blackwood wrote only six short stories about John Silence, ‘physician extraordinary’, but the mysterious, rich doctor with unnatural psychic powers is nevertheless a classic as the ‘occult detective’. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, he uses logical reasoning to expose ‘magical’ criminal deceptions, but uses his psychic ability to solve mysteries – the result is horror fiction with a detectiv...

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