Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images (2008)
Sample of authors
Block, Lawrence
Lawrence Block is an American author of crime fiction born in Buffalo. He attended Antioch College, Ohio, between 1955 and 1959 without graduating. In order to pay for his education he began to work for a magazine publisher, and in February 1958 the story You Can’t Lose was printed in the pulp magazine Manhunt. The story also features in the interview book After Hours (1995, see References). M...
Literary figures
Spenser
Gender: Male
Former state police officer who was sacked for disobeying orders, and who has instead set up his own business as a hard-boiled private detective in Chicago. Robert B. Parker has written a whole row of novels about Spenser, whose first name is never mentioned. He is very strong, violent and – in fact – interested in cooking. For many years he has had a relationship with school psychologist Susan Si...