Claude Ferny  Maître Leduc...Tueur !

Claude Ferny was a pen-name of Pierre Marchand who also signed Peter Marsh. Ferny was a case. The man wrote much, very much, maybe too much. He introduced his novels with quotes of celebrities (like Doctor Locard, the famous french criminalist), eulogistical notices  that he wrote himself most of the time. Though fallen in oblivion, or underrated, he was a main author of the french 50′s crime/detective novel. Reading his books is an experience in itself - you will pass by many state of minds, from sheer enthusiasm to drowsiness...

To make it short: Ferny was on the edge of literary madness, maybe on the edge of real madness.

collection Meurtre & Volupté, World Press, Paris, 1950

Claude Ferny  On descend les pin-up

Up to 45 years of age, Inspector Bayard, known as “Berlingot”, has ignored the women. Then, suddenly, in the course of an investigation, he is placed before the naked corpse of an outstanding beautiful young woman. The flesh then awakens in him with terrible violence, the violence of the “Repressed Urge”.  The latter will not leave him during the whole investigation during which he will discover three more naked bodies - pin-up bodies with voluptuous shapes that set his blood on fire. And the action unfolds, brutal, atrocious, and yet seasoned with this point of black humor dear to Claude Ferny as to Edgar Poe.

Les Romans Noirs Franco-Américains # 17 (May 1953)

publisher: Editions Le Trotteur, Paris, 

André Hélèna  J’aurai la peau de Salvador !

Editions Franco-Belges, 1949

Story of a Republican after the fall of Barcelona, marking the end of the Spanish Civil War. Having lost everything, Ruiz collaborates with smugglers, french escape networks (for refugees escaping the Occupation of France) and some allied secret agents who have a rather special face. But what motivates him is vengeance. He will have no rest until he has had the skin of Salvador, a Phalangist who took him the only woman to whom he really held.

Andre Helena was long ignored by the critics. He gained some fame only many years later and is now considered as a major author of the french  hard-boiled crime novel of the fifties. His work appears as a Human Comedy of the Underworld, of the gangsters, of the “Bas-Fonds”.

publisher: Editions Franco-Belges, Bois-Colombes (Seine), France

publishing director: Roger Dermée

ASLAN

cover art for three spy thrillers written by André Welté. Published in 1954/1955, the novels feature secret agent Michel Wenster from the Intelligence Service.

André Welté started during the Occupation with a couple of detective novels. In the fifties he wrote fair whodunits for publisher Jacquier/Eds. du Puits-Pelu from Lyon (pulp collection “Le Glaive”, paperback collection “La Loupe”). The novels published at L’Arabesque seem to be the last of his production. Welté has also been translated in dutch and german languages.

publisher: Editions de l’Arabesque, Paris

publishing director: Edmond Nouveau