Nestor Burma is a cynical, pipe-smoking Parisian private detective created by the French surrealist and crime novelist Léo Malet. Introduced in the 1943 novel 120, rue de la Gare, Burma runs the Fiat Lux detective agency and is known for his sharp wit and intimate knowledge of the Paris underworld. In the Burma series, one can isolate a subset of novels each set in a different quarter (arrondissement) of Paris which Malet dubbed the "New Mysteries of Paris", alluding to Eugene Sue's The Mysteries of Paris (1842–43). Burma is a hardboiled private detective, in the mold of American characters such as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe but decidedly more humorous. He works with a secretary, Hélène, who is hopelessly infatuated with Nestor, in what he calls the "Fiat Lux Agency". Burma's nemeses are typically just as much the police investigating the crime as they are the original perpetrators. Specifically, he often matches wits with Commissaire Faroux and Inspector Fabre. The novels have been adapted numerous times, most notably as a television series starring Guy Marchand, which began in 1991.