Frédéric Dard


Frédéric Dard was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the 20th century. Astonishingly prolific, he wrote more than three hundred novels, plays and screenplays, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms which makes it very difficult to determine his exact output. He has earned his iconic status in France due to the wildly popular San-Antonio book series.

Biography

Frédéric Dard wrote 175 adventures of San-Antonio, of which millions of copies were sold. Detective Superintendent Antoine San-Antonio is a kind of French James Bond without gadgets, flanked by two colleagues, the old, sickly but wise inspector César Pinaud and the gargantuesque inspector Alexandre-Benoît Bérurier. He is a member of the French secret service and has to fulfill impossible missions given by "Le Vieux", later known as "Achilles", the head of the French police. With the help of his colleagues he always succeeds through various adventures.
Dard won the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière for The Executioner Weeps.