Hubert Monteilhet (July 10, 1928 - May 12, 2019) was a French writer of crime and historical fiction. His best-known novels are The Praying Mantises and Return from the Ashes which have been adapted into TV and motion pictures. His works are characterized by their literary sophistication and mordant wit while exploring moral and philosophical issues. He was called "one of the more eclectic and diversified dabblers in crime" and "the most literary of all the French crime novelists." Born to a family of a magistrate, Monteilhet was educated by the Jesuits at Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, a private Catholic school in Paris. During the Occupation, he lived in Auvergne at the family estate in Nouara, near Ambert. He was tutored by Jean Recanati, a communist and future editor of L’Humanité, whom Monteilhet’s parents had taken in. After the war, Monteilhet received his degree in history at the Sorbonne. He first taught history in Normandy, and then at the Lycée Carnot in Tunisia from 1959 to 1970.