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Portrait of Dean R. Koontz Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images (2009)

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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...

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Literary figures

Stephen Ramsey

Gender: Male

Detective Chief Inspector Ramsey is a bitter, middle-aged lone wolf, abandoned by his wife and not appreciated by his colleagues in the police force in Northumberland. In Ann Cleeves’ first books about him, he seems unacceptably glum and boring, but his personality develops and he turns out to be a good and empathetic listener – which also makes him a good murder investigator.

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