Sample of authors
LaPlante, Alice
American author, journalist and teacher, who has written technical books in different subjects as well as psychological crime novels. Her parents were both from Philadelphia, but moved to Washington the same year that she was born. The family moved on to Chicago in 1969, and settled down in the district of Arlington Heights. She studied at Buffalo Grove High School, and then studied at the...
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...