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
Porfiry Rostnikov
Gender: Male
He was a police officer during the Soviet era, and remained in the police force after the collapse of communism. According to author Stuart M. Kaminsky, he did so despite having problems with colleagues and superiors – because Porfiry Rostnikov is scrupulously honest and when necessary breaks bureaucratic rules. The fact that he is married to a Jewess, Sarah, is not seen with approval either. He r...