Gaboriau, ga-bo re-o, Emile (1835-1873), a French novelist. He was born at Saujon. He was by turns a soldier, a lawyer, a priest, and a writer for the Paris papers. In 1866 he made a hit by The Lerouge Affair, a story contributed to the story insert of Le Pays. Gaboriau was a writer of detective stories. His most famous creation is Monsieur Lecoq, the prototype, it may be, of Sherlock Holmes.