France

In the three years from 1965 to 1967, all six Brains Benton stories were translated into French, and published by 'Editions des deux coqs d'or'. This was an imprint of the large French publishing house Hachette that dealt mainly with foreign language versions of stories originally published by Golden Press in the US. These stories formed part of the 'étoile D'or' (Golden Star) collection .

The last four books acknowledged that the stories contained the same re-occurring characters, with a subtitle proclaiming Benton & Carson, détectives privés (Benton and Carson, private detectives) on the front cover. The French books share this attribute with the German releases.

1. Missing Message	2. Counterfeit Coin	3. Stolen Dummy
5. Roving Rolls	4. Waltzing Mouse	6. Painted Dragon

	Title / Series Number:	Year:	Illustrator:	Original & Translated Titles:
1.	Le Document Perdu  (No.8)	1965  3rd Q.	Jacques Pecnard	US: Missing Message French: The Lost Document
2.	Un Étrange Antiquaire  (No.23)	1966  1st Q.	Jacques Pecnard	US: Counterfeit Coin French: A Strange Antique Dealer
3.	La Mare au Noyé  (No.34)	1966  2nd Q.	Jacques Pecnard	US: Stolen Dummy French: The Drowned in the Pond
4.	Le fantôme d'argent  (No.47)	1966  3rd Q.	Jacques Pecnard	US: Roving Rolls French: The Silver Ghost
5.	Sur la piste de Xénophon  (No.52)	1966  4th Q.	Beniamino Bodini	US: Waltzing Mouse French: On the Track of Xénophon
6.	Le Secret du Dragon D'or  (No.65)	1967  2nd Q.	Beniamino Bodini	US: Painted Dragon French: The Secret of the Golden Dragon

 
Translated into French by: Odile Pidoux (MM, CC, SD, WM), A-M. Comert (RR), Ariane (PD).

Each French title specified the quarter of the year it was published in, and this information is given in the table above. The actual term used is 'trimestre', which is the French equivalent of a quarter (three calendar months).

Above left: The full French cover of Missing Message.
 Above right: the frontispiece and title page of the French Stolen Dummy.

• Hong Kong Reprints.
It would appear that all six titles were reprinted in 1972. Unlike the original printings, which were manufactured in Verona, Italy by Arnoldo Mondadori, these later impressions were produced in Hong Kong. Characteristics unique to the 1972 releases, in comparison with the original books, include the following:

A couple of the differences between the first and second printings of the French edition of Missing Message are shown below:

Title page: first printing (left) and second printing (right).	Cover text: first printing (top) and second printing (bottom).

So far, second printings of only three titles have come to light (Missing Message, Roving Rolls and Painted Dragon). However, it seems more than likely that all six Brains Benton stories were reprinted in this manner.