Émile Gaboriau (November 9, 1832 - September 28, 1873), a French mystery writer, novelist, and journalist, one of the pioneers of modern detective fiction. Gaboriau's first book of the genre, L'Affaire Lerouge (1866) introduced an amateur detective, who works logically. In the same book appeared also a young policeman named Lecoq, the hero in three of Gaboriau's detective novels. Lecoq was based on a real-life thief turned policeman, François Vidocq (1775-1857), whose memoirs, Les Vrais Mémoires de Vidocq, mixed fiction and fact.

Gaboriau gained a huge following, but when Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, Lecoq's international fame declined.

Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Martime . He died of pulmonary apoplexy on 28 September, 1873.

External links

• Online editions of his works