Frédéric Dard

Frédéric Dard, born Frédéric Charles Antoine Dard, in Bourgoin-Jallieu, Isère, was a French writer and author of the San-Antonio series.

He is one of the most famous French crime novels writers of the second half of the 20th century. He was also one of the most prolific, since he wrote more than 300 novels throughout his career. Under the pseudonym of San-Antonio (with the dash, which was originally a mistake), which he chose randomly with his finger on a map of America while he was looking for an English-sounding name for the famous police superintendent who is the main hero of his novels. San-Antonio is both in the case the main hero and the pseudonym of the writer, and books are written in the first person.

Frédéric Dard wrote 173 adventures of San-Antonio, of which millions of copies were sold. A San-Antonio is likely to be found in any French household. Detective Superintendent Antoine San-Antonio is a kind of French James Bond without gadget, 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" (the Old Man), later known as "Achilles", the head of the French police. With the help of his colleagues he always succeeds through various adventures.