Crime Writers

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Sample of authors

Ludlum, Robert

The American thriller writer, theatre producer and actor Robert Ludlum were born in New York, but his family moved to New Jersey when he was just a baby and it was there he grew up. His father was a business man and the young son received an education at private schools across Connecticut: Rectory School in Pomfret, Kent School in Kent, Chesire Academy in Chesire and Wesleyan University in...

Further reading

Theme article

History of crime fiction

By: Johan Wopenka

Depending upon how one wishes to define the concept ‘crime fiction’, it is possible to trace its history and roots back in time. When Dorothy L. Sayers compiled her comprehensive three-volume anthology Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror (1928–34) she started with two stories from the Old Testament, and when Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (alias Ellery Queen) wrote their fundamental The Detective Short Story : A Bibliography (1942), they listed eight Chinese collections of short stories which are believed to have been written down between 600 A.D. and 1800 A.D., some of them containing stories based on an older, oral tradition.

Further reading

Literary figures

Lars Martin Johansson

Gender: Male

Johansson is head of the Swedish Police. He first appears in Leif G. W. Persson’s first book Grisfesten and then returns in a string of novels by the author. He was previously married to Gunilla; they have two children together. After a few years he marries Pia who is 20 years younger. He is a passionate hunter and eventually dies of a stroke.

Further reading