René Belletto, master of the French crime and fantastic novel, has died
The Lyon-based author, known for his unsettling blend of thriller and the fantastic, wrote more than twenty books and saw several adapted for cinema.
The writer René Belletto has died, according to Le Monde and Télérama. Both outlets describe him as a central figure of contemporary French crime and fantastic fiction, a writer who shaped several generations of readers with his distinctive narratives.
Belletto was closely tied to Lyon, where he lived and set much of his work, including what is referred to as his "trilogie lyonnaise," according to Télérama. Over his career he published more than twenty books, moving between the codes of the roman policier and those of the fantastic.
Several of his novels were adapted for cinema in the late 1980s, Télérama notes, extending his reach beyond readers of his books. Le Monde describes an author who left his mark across literature and film, and who remained steadfastly attached to his native city throughout his career.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.