Photo: Mary Evans /AF Archive/TT (1978)
Sample of authors
Highsmith, Patricia
Patricia Highsmith was an American author born in Fort Worth, Texas, as Mary Patricia Plangman. Both parents were artists who worked with illustrations and advertising. They separated before Highsmith was born, and her mother married Stanley Highsmith in 1924. The family moved to New York in 1927, a sad period for Highsmith. Her relationship with her mother was fraught and she did not get on...
Literary figures
Merci Rayborn
Gender: Female
Female police detective, based in Orange County in California and featured in a trilogy by T. Jefferson Parker. Merci Rayborn is young, attractive, stubborn and devoted to her work – but is dogged by misfortune. Already in the first book, she makes a mistake which leads to the death of an older colleague – and he is the father of her as-yet-unborn son. As a single mother, she solves crimes where h...