Fred Vargas - pseudonym Frederique Audoin-Rouzeau, the brightest star of French fiction. Her novel "The Man Who Draws Blue Circles" (L'Homme aux cercles bleus, 1996) instantly disappeared from the shelves of bookstores and soon after its release won a prize at the festival in Saint-Nazaire. Vargas's book Debout les morts (1995) was named the best detective novel of 1995.