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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

Don Diavolo

Gender: Male

Don Diavolo is a stage magician who always appears with a mask when he is not solving “impossible” crimes in a horror setting. The author, Stuart Towne (pen name for Clayton Rawson), has given little away about this enigmatic, evasive character. Don Diavolo’s New York home has secret rooms, false mirrors and hidden exits, and he is surrounded by a group of eccentric friends and collaborators.

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