Crime Writers

Photo: Dermot Cleary

Sample of authors

Leonard, Elmore

The American author Elmore John Leonard, Jr. was born in New Orleans, but because his father worked for the automobile industry, the family often moved homes. They lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before finally settling in Detroit in 1934. Leonard graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1943, after which he did his military service in the Navy and was sent to...

Further reading

Theme article

History of crime fiction

By: Johan Wopenka

Depending upon how one wishes to define the concept ‘crime fiction’, it is possible to trace its history and roots back in time. When Dorothy L. Sayers compiled her comprehensive three-volume anthology Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror (1928–34) she started with two stories from the Old Testament, and when Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (alias Ellery Queen) wrote their fundamental The Detective Short Story : A Bibliography (1942), they listed eight Chinese collections of short stories which are believed to have been written down between 600 A.D. and 1800 A.D., some of them containing stories based on an older, oral tradition.

Further reading

Literary figures

Anders Knutas

Gender: Male

A detective inspector of thirty years, Knutas is working for the Visby police on the Swedish island of Gotland in a series of books by Mari Jungstedt. Knutas is in his fifties, he is experienced, cautious and detailed in his investigations. He was married to a Danish midwife, Line. They have two children, twins, that in the most recent books are adults. He is devastated by his and Line’s divorce.

Further reading