until his retirement in 1967. Narcejac began writing pastiches of various crime fiction authors which were published in the collections Confidences dans ma nuit (1946) and Nouvelles confidences dans ma nuit (1947). At the same time, he wrote his first crime novel L'Assassin de minuit (1945). Narcejac also partnered with Serge Arcouët, who used the pseudonym "Terry Stewart", to produce a series of novels imitating American thrillers. They were published under the joint pen name "John-Silver Lee". In 1947, Narcejac also published an essay titled L'esthétique du roman policier ("The Esthetics of the Crime Novel") which drew Pierre Boileau's attention. The two writers began to correspond and finally met at the awards dinner in 1948, where Narcejac was receiving the Prix du Roman d'Aventures for his novel La mort est du voyage. Two years later, they began writing together, with Boileau providing the plots and Narcejac the atmosphere and characterisation, not unlike Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee ("Ellery Queen"). Their first collaborative effort, L’ombre et la proie (1951), published under the name "Alain Bouccarèje" (the anagram of Boileau-Narcejac), went largely unnoticed. Their second novel She Who Was No More (1952), signed "Boileau-Narcejac", became their breakthrough, and was later filmed by Henri-Georges Clouzot as Les Diaboliques. Their success was further sealed when Alfred Hitchcock adapted The Living and the Dead (1954) as Vertigo in 1958. Boileau and Narcejac also worked as screenwriters, most notably on the adaptation of the novel Les yeux sans visage by Jean Redon into the horror movie known in English as Eyes Without a Face (1960). Their works often flirted with the fantastic and the macabre, erupting full-blown in their novel Et mon tout est un homme (published in English as Choice Cuts) which received the Grand Prix de l’Humour Noir in 1965. In 1964, they published Le Roman policier, a theoretical study of the crime genre. In the 1970s, Boileau and Narcejac received the permission from the Maurice Leblanc estate to write new adventures of Arsène Lupin. They also wrote the "Sans Atout" series for younger readers, about a boy detective. Their collaboration ended with Boileau's death on 16 January 1989 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. The last novel containing his contribution was J'ai été un fantôme ("I was a ghost") published later that year. Narcejac continued writing alone, still signing his works as "Boileau-Narcejac". He died on 7 June 1998 in Nice. Personal life Boileau was married in