Sample of authors
Cross, Amanda
Carolyn Gold Heilbrun was a successful American academic, feminist and author of a series of mystery novels published under the pen name Amanda Cross, which came to have a major influence on future women crime writers. She was born to a Jewish family in East Orange, New Jersey. The family moved to Manhattan in 1923 where Gold attended Birch Wathen School. She enrolled at Columbia University, New...
Literary figures
Piet van der Valk
Gender: Male
An independent, eccentric and short-tempered detective superintendent with the police in Amsterdam, the main character in a suite of police novels by Englishman Nicolas Freeling. Piet van der Valk is arrogant, but also critical of society and empathetic. He is married to Arlette with whom he has two sons and an adopted daughter. He is killed during an investigation, and his wife takes over the...