Prolific French spy novelist Gérard De Villiers, the creator of the top-selling SAS series often described as France's answer to James Bond, has died aged 83 in Paris, reports FRANCE 24.
De Villiers died on Thursday "after a long illness," said Eric Morain, his longtime attorney.
Never a darling of the critics, De Villiers was nonetheless a publishing phenomenon, with his publishers claiming his books had sold more than 100 million copies worldwide since he began writing in 1964.
The 200th book in the series – 'SAS: The Kremlin's Revenge' – was released last month.
Instantly recognisable by their lurid covers with femmes fatales brandishing guns, and containing a regular smattering of hard-core sex, his books were shunned by France's literary establishment.
But outside literary circles, De Villiers was often praised for his geopolitical insights and was known for cultivating a vast network of intelligence officials, diplomats and journalists who fed him information.
In February, the New York Times described him as "the spy novelist who knows too much" in an interview in Paris that took place following his return from Afghanistan, where he had been researching material for his 198th and 199th novels.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.