A former student of Léonard Limosin secondary school and with a PhD in literature from Paris, Estelle Monbrun (the pseudonym of this Proust expert) began her career as a professor of contemporary French literature in the United States, in New York then Saint-Louis.

She has become a world-renowned specialist in the works of Marcel Proust and Marguerite Yourcenar. Alongside her teaching profession, Estelle Monbrun writes detective novels published by Éditions Viviane Hamy. Her texts mix the crispness of writing, through the playful and parodic aspect of her literary production, and depth, through the scientific and documentary quality offered by those genres.

With The Murder of Aunt Léonie, Estelle Monbrun inaugurated the Chemins Nocturnes collection of Éditions Viviane Hamy. Other “murders” would follow. She is often compared with David Lodge and Agatha Christie: “First, is this author’s use of sarcasm when referring to the university world, which is represented with pitiless, if touching, humour. Second, is her art of narration, the false leads and dramatic twists.” René de Ceccatty, Le Monde.