Author, Journalist, Translator.  Havank was the pen-name of H.F. (Hans) van der Kallen, Dutch writer of some 30 very popular crime-novels and stories, featuring French police-officers Bruno Silvère and Charles C.M. Carlier, better known in Dutch as  de Schaduw‚‚ ( the Shadow) as principal characters. Furthermore he  translated some 45 novels, mainly of fellow crime writers such as Leslie Charteris and R.A.J. Walling. Most of his books were since the mid fifties published as pocketbooks and he is estimated to have sold a total of approx 6 million copies. Only two of his own books were translated, into German. Other translations are not known. In the war years he worked on the editorial staff of the London edition of the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland.Havank lived most of his life abroad, in the south of France, on Mallorca, in England. It may therefore be considered quite remarkable that he suffered his fatal heart attack in his Leeuwarden‚s Amicitia hotel room at a less than thirty yards distance from his birthplace. (bio by: Frank van der Voordt)