Alter ego …

… Julian Barnes's pseudonymous detective novels stay under cover | Books | theguardian.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Since then he's kept mum, the books have gone out of print and, even though they're returning, there's a risk the series' significance will be overlooked. A detective who was other than heterosexual or asexual was very rare indeed in 1980 – particularly on this side of the Atlantic, particularly if he was a man; Val McDermid's lesbian journalist-sleuth Lindsay Gordon, often seen as a breakthrough, only made her debut in 1987, the year of Duffy's swan song