San-Antonio is is both a character invented by Fréderic Dard and one of the numerous pseudonyms of him. He wrote 175 novel under this name as if his charater, who speak at the first person narrativ, had written his own history.

San-Antonio is supposed to be a police commissioner who investigates strage cases, often with is coarse acolyte Bérurier. Written as if the commissioner have been telling oraly his adventures, those novels are full of humor, in the typical way of Frédéric Dard: rude, full of contrepetrie, anglisism, catachresis and neologism. The author even said that he made his entire career like a writter with only 300 words and he invented all the others.

I would like to give you my favorite extract and, as Dard is a french writter, everybody will understand: it’s in french :

« Pinaud est occupé à recoudre les boutons de son pantalon qu’un séisme a dispersés. Bas-vêtu d’un calcif à rayures style Chérie-Bibi, son chapeau de feutre enfoncé jusqu’aux coquilles, ses lunettes en équilibre sur la pointe de son naze, il tire l’aiguille avec autant de conscience que Jeanne of Arc en mettait à filer sa quenouille en bâton avant que ses voix off ordonnent à la pucelle d’ébranler les rosbifs et d’emmener Charlot number VII à Reims pour y sabler le champagne de la victoire. »

San-Antonio; Tout le plaisir est pour moi

With this particular sense of humor, the series of San-Antonio please to a large public by mitigate the usual darkness that reign in the atmophere of thrillers. All the plots are more fussy than the one before but it is really easy to read and so fun that it is always a pleasure!

Personaly, I think that the two best are Tout le plaisir est pour moi and Salut, mon pope! .

You should give it a look, I am pretty sure that you will like it, even if reading is absolutly not your cup of tea!