Jean-François Parot

Coming from a family closely connected with the cinema (as a child, he knew Jean Gabin, his mother worked for Marcel Carné and his grandfather was the editor of Abel Gance's Napoléon[1]), Parot got a BA and an MA in history and completed postgraduate studies in anthropology, specializing in Egyptian mummification techniques, the myths of the Pacific Islanders and the social history of 18th-century Paris.

He wrote the study Structures sociales des quartiers de Grève, Saint-Avoye et Saint-Antoine, 1780–1785 (published on microfiche by Hachette, 1974).

He was vice-consul in Kinshasa (1974); Consul General of France in Ho Chi Minh City (1982–87) and in Athens; embassy counselor in Doha, Khartoum, Djibouti, Ouagadougou and Sofia; Minister Counselor at Tunis and deputy to the French ambassador; also advisor to the Minister of Industry and deputy director of personnel in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nantes.

When the cycle of novels begins in 1761, he is working with the (real-life) Antoine de Sartine, Lieutenant General of Police of Paris, and promoted to Commissaire of le Châtelet.

Les enquêtes de Nicolas Le Floch, commissaire au Châtelet (Listed here are the first French editions (Éd.