Inspector Gabriel Hanaud is a fictional French detective depicted in a series of five novels, one novella and one short story by the British writer A. E. W. Mason. He has been described as the "first major fiction police detective of the Twentieth Century".[1]
Mason wanted Hanaud to be a professional detective who was as physically unlike Sherlock Holmes as possible[3] so, in contrast to the slender Holmes, Hanaud became stout and broad-shouldered.[5] He was to be a genial and friendly soul ready, "as the French detective does", to trust his flair or intuition and to take the risk of acting upon it.[3] In the stories, Hanaud often relies on psychological methods to solve cases.[6] He is generally assisted by his friend, the fastidious Julius Ricardo, a former City of London financier.
Hanaud made his first appearance in the 1910 novel At the Villa Rose set in the south of France. He appeared in a further four novels and a novella. His last appearance was in the 1946 novel The House in Lordship Lane. Hanaud has been portrayed on screen several times – with adaptations of At the Villa Rose and The House of the Arrow.
