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Portrait image of Émile Gaboriau

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Gaboriau, Émile

While Edgar Allan Poe, the American author of short stories, is generally considered to be the father of modern crime fiction, Émile Gaboriau has been cited as the father of the crime novel. He was the first to use at least four defining elements of the genre: 1) He wrote briefly and succinctly compared to his contemporaries and his novels are driven by the crime plot. 2) His protagonists are ...

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Literary figures

Suzie (Susannah) Mountford

Gender: Female

Shortly after becoming a police officer, Susannah ‘Suzie’ Mountford – because of a shortage of staff during the war – had to investigate a murder case. She managed it well, and also became the secret lover of her boss, Chief Inspector Tommy Livermore. She is described by her creator, John Gardner, as tall and slim, with brown hair and green eyes. Her father died in an accident when she was a teena...

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