Catherine Arley

Catherine Arley is the pen name of Pierrette Pernot, born in Paris. At the end of her classical secondary studies, she entered the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique (CNSD, National Conservatory of Dramatic Art). After a few films and some street theater, she gave up her acting career after her marriage and when her first novel, Tu vas mourir (You Will Die), was published in 1953. Her second novel, La Femme de paille (Woman of Straw) was refused by all the French publishers to whom she offered it. It was published in Switzerland in 1954, winning her international fame when it appeared in 24 countries and was adapted into a 1964 film. She also adapted it into a play shown on French television in 1976. From 1962 to 1972, she published three more novels: Le Talion (Retaliation, 1962), Les beaux messieurs faire comme ça (The Handsome Gentlemen Do It Like That, 1968), and Les Valets d’épée (Knights of the Sword, 1968), which won the Prix International du Suspense.

It was not until 1972 that she managed to be published again in France: Eurédif launched its "Suspense" series and she became its star author. She published, among others, Duel au premier sang (1973, adapted into a 1975 film under the title Blondy (Vortex in the USA); several of her books were adapted into television movies in France and Japan.
In 1980, Eurédif stopped its series and she moved to Le Masque, which published her unpublished works and reissues while simultaneously publishing new ones. Her novel À cloche-cœur (Heart Bell) received the Prix du Roman d'Aventures from Le Masque in 1981.

She also published 11 collections of short stories. In her career, Catherine Arley has sold more than two million books between Collins, her English publisher, and Random House, her USA publisher.