Photo: Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images (2019)
Sample of authors
Herron, Mick
The British crime writer Mick Herron was born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He read literature at Balliol College, Oxford, where he now lives after having worked for many years at a legal journal in London. He became a full-time writer in 2017. Herron does not generally speak about his private life but has revealed that he is unmarried and that he is not living with his partner Jo. Before...
Literary figures
Piet van der Valk
Gender: Male
An independent, eccentric and short-tempered detective superintendent with the police in Amsterdam, the main character in a suite of police novels by Englishman Nicolas Freeling. Piet van der Valk is arrogant, but also critical of society and empathetic. He is married to Arlette with whom he has two sons and an adopted daughter. He is killed during an investigation, and his wife takes over the...