Abdelilah Hamdouchi, one of the first writers of police fiction in the Arabic language, was born in Meknès, Morocco, in 1958. His police novels—which dialogue with current democratic and human rights reform in Morocco—include The Blind Whale (1997), Saint Janjah (1999), The White Fly (2000), The Final Bet (2001), and Bled Dry (2009). The Final Bet was published, in Jonathan Smolin's English translation, by American University Press in Cairo in 2008. Hamdouchi is also a prolific and award-winning screenwriter. Among his many film and television credits, he has written the scripts for seven police thrillers. He lives in Rabat, Morocco