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Portrait of Alistair MacLean Photo: Popperfoto via Getty Images (1960)

Sample of authors

MacLean, Alistair

The Scottish author Alistair Stuart MacLean was born in Shettleston, Glasgow, in a Gaelic-speaking family as Alasdair MacGill-Eain (his Gaelic name was anglicised by the British authorities). His father was a Church of Scotland minister. While the author was still a baby, the family moved to a farm near Daviot in the Highlands. After the death of his father, his mother returned to Glasgow with...

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Literary figures

Donald Lam

Gender: Male

Although a capable lawyer, Lam is unpopular with both the police and his colleagues. There is no evidence or witness statements that he cannot distort in one way or another. He is employed by the tough private detective Bertha Cool. They make up a formidable pair in a series of light-hearted mystery novels by A. A. Fair (pen name for Erle Stanley Gardner).

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