Last week, Michael Redhill revealed he has been writing detective novels under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe. Now, there’s speculation surrounding the identity of author Sylvain Reynard, who just received a sweet seven-figure deal from Penguin’s Berkley imprint.

Here’s what Quillblog does know: Berkley will publish Reynard’s best-selling novels Gabriel’s Inferno and Gabriel’s Rapture, which were first released as ebooks by Omnific Publishing. Like E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, the books were adapted from serialized Twilight fan fiction.

Reynard originally wrote the Twilight-inspired story “The University of Edward Masen” under the pen name Sebastien Robichaud, but the story has since disappeared from the Web, as has Robichaud’s website. GalleyCat editor Jason Boog used web tools to pull sample pages.

There are rumours that Reynard (who “self-presents as male) is a Canadian writer with several non-fiction books under his belt, and certainly the evidence points to this being the case:

• On his website bio, Reynard says he tries to “use my platform as an author to raise awareness” for charities, including Toronto’s Covenant House.
• Under a list of locations that appear in the Gabriel series, Reynard includes several Hogtown landmarks and venues, including the University of Toronto and the Manulife Centre.
• Robichaud posted a note on a fan-fiction website about a CBC program on the Halifax perfume company, the 7 Virtues.

Any guesses as to Reynard’s true identity?