Meny
Portrait image of Paula Hawkins Photo: Ola Erikson / Forflex (2015)

Sample of authors

Hawkins, Paula

Paula Hawkins grew up in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). Her father was an economics professor and journalist. Paula spent the best part of her early childhood happily ignorant of the social injustices that were to lead up to the formation of Zimbabwe. She moved with her family to England in 1989, and after a few years her parents returned to Africa. Hawkins read political science,...

Further reading

Literary figures

Sam Spade

Gender: Male

Dashiell Hammett only wrote one novel and a few short stories about the American private detective Sam Spade. The Maltese Falcon, however, is a major classic and like some of his short stories it is the precursor of the hardboiled detective story. The cynical, tough and outright rude Spade and his personal habits are so often copied that they have become clichés.

Further reading