Photo: Anders Hammarqvist / Sydsvenskan/IBL / TT (1997)
Sample of authors
McBain, Ed
Ed McBain is the best-known pen name for Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Alberto Lombino, a versatile and prolific American author best known for his detective thrillers. He officially changed his name in 1952 for marketing purposes. McBain was born in Italian Harlem, New York. When he was twelve he move with his parents, Charles and Marie Lombino, to Bronx where he attended elementary school and...
Literary figures
Bertha Cool
Gender: Female
Cool is a sturdy woman in her sixties who runs a private detective agency on the fringes of the law. She is a hardboiled lady who smokes, drinks and swears, so she caused some attention when the books about her were launched in the 1930s by A. A. Fair (a pen name used by Erle Stanley Gardner). Her trusted helper is a wiry, sly lawyer called Donald Lam.