Photo: Damian Dovarganes / AP Photo / TT (2004)
Sample of authors
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...
Literary figures
Herbie (Eberhardt) Kruger
Gender: Male
Born in Germany, as a teenager he was recruited by the Americans and eventually became a spy for Great Britain. He built up a large spy-ring in East Germany, but, when it was exposed, he had to fight to save his colleagues. Now, the clumsily heavily-built Eberhard ‘Herbie’ Kruger is seen as an old relic, but in John Gardner’s novels he shows that he still has a lot to contribute.