Crime Writers

Photo: Peter Peitsch (1995) / www.peitschphoto.com

Sample of authors

Schlink, Bernhard

The German lawyer and author Bernhard Schlink was born in Grossdornberg (now part of the city of Bielefeld) and grew up in Heidelberg. His mother was Swiss and his father German, a professor of theology at the University of Heidelberg. As a young man Schlink was interested in literature; he wanted either to become an author or to study history and sociology. But he followed his father's advice...

Further reading

Theme article

History of crime fiction

By: Johan Wopenka

Depending upon how one wishes to define the concept ‘crime fiction’, it is possible to trace its history and roots back in time. When Dorothy L. Sayers compiled her comprehensive three-volume anthology Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror (1928–34) she started with two stories from the Old Testament, and when Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (alias Ellery Queen) wrote their fundamental The Detective Short Story : A Bibliography (1942), they listed eight Chinese collections of short stories which are believed to have been written down between 600 A.D. and 1800 A.D., some of them containing stories based on an older, oral tradition.

Further reading

Literary figures

John Corey

Gender: Male

When he worked for the New York police homicide unit he was seriously wounded. While on sick leave he solved a double murder, which aroused such attention that he was recruited to an anti-terrorist task force. There, he met Kate Mayfield, a beautiful lady who later becomes not only an FBI agent but also John Corey’s wife. Together, they combat terrorists and spies in novels by Nelson DeMille.

Further reading