Sample of authors
Reilly, Helen
Critics often regard Helen Reilly as one of the most important female American crime writers of the 1930s. One reason for this distinction is that most of her peers at the time dedicated themselves to romantic suspense, while Reilly instead wrote a series of realistic stories about police work, told from the perspective of the cops themselves. Her main protagonist is inspector McKee of the...
Literary figures
Emily Pollifax
Gender: Female
Elderly American widow, 60+, bored with tea parties and charity work, who applies for a job as a ‘secret agent’ with the CIA. She is allowed to try and manages it so well that she gets a permanent job and becomes the main character in a suite of novels by Dorothy Gilman. Mrs Emily Pollifax is quick-witted, articulate and has a brown belt in karate. She eventually marries the patient Cyrus Reed.