Sample of authors
Gaboriau, Émile
While Edgar Allan Poe, the American author of short stories, is generally considered to be the father of modern crime fiction, Émile Gaboriau has been cited as the father of the crime novel. He was the first to use at least four defining elements of the genre: 1) He wrote briefly and succinctly compared to his contemporaries and his novels are driven by the crime plot. 2) His protagonists are ...
Literary figures
Parker
Gender: Male
One of the most horrible anti-heroes in crime fiction is the professional criminal and psychopath Parker (he doesn’t have a first name), created by Richard Stark (pseudonym for Donald E. Westlake). He doesn’t have a permanent home, is well-built, his face looks like it has been carved in cement, his hair is brown and stripy, and he kills without any consideration or conscience. The only time he sh...