French author Éric Fouassier is known for his historical crime novels set in Paris of 1831. The Cabinet of Hidden Mysteries series has sold more than half a million copies in Spain.

The protagonist of these novels is Valentin Verne, a Parisian dandy with an almost perfect face tinged with a “moving melancholy” “He is a less cold Sherlock Holmes, a carnal Holmes,” summarizes the author when asked about the resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle's mythical detective.