Very little is known about Martin Meroy, a supposedly French mystery writer, except that he managed the paperback series ("Le Crabe") that published some of his books and that he apparently gave up writing when the market dried up in the mid-sixties. Though embedded in the particular mythology of French paperbacks of the era, Meroy's fiction stands up because of its strong plots and elegant prose as well as the author's fondness for impossible crimes. Most of his books cast himself as the narrator/detective but he also wrote a series featuring hardboiled dick Charles Coltena, a.k.a. Charles Colt.