Photo: Murray/Fairfax Media via Getty Images (1960)
Sample of authors
Marsh, Ngaio
The New Zealand author Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was born in Merivale, Christchurch. Her father was an immigrant English bank manager and her mother was born in New Zealand, although her family too originally came from England. Ngaio is the Maori word for "reflection on water". A somewhat eccentric and confused man, Marsh's father did not report his daughter's birth to the authorities until 1900,...
Literary figures
Matt Scudder
Gender: Male
He killed a young girl in an accident, which caused Matthew ‘Matt’ Scudder to leave his job with the police and his family. He started to drink and moved to the notorious ghetto Hell’s Kitchen in New York, but eventually became a ‘sober alcoholic’ and private detective without a licence in a suite of novels by Lawrence Block. Scudder even starts a long-term relationship with the prostitute Elaine...