Photo: Louis Monier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images (1979)
Sample of authors
Manchette, Jean-Patrick
Jean-Patrick Manchette was a French author credited for having revolutionised noir fiction in France. He was born in Marseille. In 1945, the family moved to Malakoff in the Paris area. In 1960, after finishing his upper-secondary education, he moved to Paris where he spent most of his life and where he read English at the Sorbonne.
Manchette joined the militant left during the Algerian War of...
Literary figures
John Thorndyke
Gender: Male
A classic in crime literature, regarded as the first ‘scientific’ detective. Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke not only has degrees in Law and Medicine, he is also a forensic technician and pathologist, explains R. Austin Freeman in his books. Thorndyke is tall and strong, he is handsome, has exceptionally good eyesight and hearing, and a clever laboratory assistant called Polton.