Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images (2009)
Sample of authors
Koontz, Dean R.
Dean Ray Koontz is an American author of suspense literature. He was born in Everett, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a dysfunctional family with a violent, alcoholic father and a suppressed mother. He found comfort in reading and watching movies, and he began to write short stories, which he sold to friends and relatives when he was eight years old. He attended Shippensburg State College (now...
Literary figures
Julie Hayes
Gender: Female
Author Dorothy Salisbury Davis created an unusual female problem-solver in the form of Julie Hayes. She is a middle-aged woman, who was raped in her youth, which led to mental problems. She tests several different professions, including that of a gossip columnist and a fortune teller, and for a long time lives in a dysfunctional marriage with an older man. And she also gets involved in crimes in...