a Resident of the Haute-Garonne, Claude Mesplède died at 79 years of age. After having worked in the aviation, it became a passion for his literary criticism in the 1980s. He had earned a solid reputation in France and abroad, had worked in publishing and chaired for several years the association 813 which includes the “friends of the literary police”. Claude Mesplède was the author of numerous books on crime fiction, including several works of reference. He has also edited several collections of its kind in editions The tidal Bore, the Editions of the Rock or Otherwise.

” READ – crime novels favorite of the reading Club of Figaro

He had led the Dictionnaire des littératures policières , a book of encyclopedic nicknamed “Mesplède” by lovers of crime fiction, a sum of more than 2000 pages and about 3,000 articles, published in two volumes for editions Joseph K. In the preface that he signed, Daniel Pennac says his admiration: “Yes, it is The Mesplède that I takes away on a deserted island ; this dictionary if thoroughly complete is a novel without end.”

Mesplède has also authored a number of works devoted to the famous Black Series , specialized collection published by the publishing house Gallimard. The criticism was appreciated by many authors, French and anglo-saxon countries. Some were addressed to Claude Mesplède of allusions in their novels, giving its name to the characters, like James Ellroy in American Death Trip or Dennis Lehane in A country at the dawn .