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Portrait image of Wilkie Collins

Sample of authors

Collins, Wilkie

The British author Wilkie Collins (William Wilkie Collins) wrote a series of extremely successful novels as well as a number of short stories and plays. T.S. Eliot later described his novel The Moonstone (1868) as "the world's first, longest and best detective story". Collins was one of the most popular authors of his time, both at home and abroad. He was close to Charles Dickens and a notorious...

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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...

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