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Portrait image of Leslie Charteris Photo: Hulton Archives via Getty Images (c.1965)

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Charteris, Leslie

Leslie Charteris was born in colonial Singapore as Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin. His father, Suat Chuan Yin, was a wealthy physician and company manager who claimed he was related to an ancient Chinese imperial family. Charteris' mother, Lydia Florence Bowyer, was English. Young Leslie was educated at home and on the many journeys he made with his parents; he claimed to have toured the world three...

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Literary figures

Melville Fairr

Gender: Male

It is hard to believe that New Yorker Melville Fairr is a successful private detective: he is little, with a friendly but nondescript face and a quiet voice – and he is grey: grey hair, grey eyes, always grey suits. He would rather listen than talk, but comes to quick and logical conclusions in three crime novels that Michael Venning (pseudonym for Georgiana Randolph Craig) has written about him.

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