A best-selling anonymous author has been unmasked, and people are outraged

ROME (AP) - Follow the money trail is an adage of investigative journalism. But can that approach reveal the identity of a globally popular author? Some fans of Elena Ferrante's novels think that's going too far.

Claudio Gatti, an investigative journalist for Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, claimed Sunday he has probably discovered the true name of Ferrante, who's popular for her series of novels exploring the lifelong friendship of two girls in Naples.

Gatti wrote that real estate records and revenue and payment details involving Ferrante's publishing house Edizioni e/o indicate that Ferrante is a Rome-based book translator named Anita Raja. His article, also published by The New York Review of Books, says the publisher refused comment. 

Ferrante's quartet series of "Neapolitan" novels has sold over 1.2 million copies collectively in the US, and sales for her books have spiked significantly following Gatti's "unmasking" of her identity.

Many fans and writers on social media were outraged about Gatti's probe, however, saying that it violated the author's privacy. (She chooses to remain anonymous.)

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