Arsène Lupin, Super-Sleuth

What It's About

Strolling through Paris under the name Raoul de Limésy, Arsène Lupin finds himself tailing a man who is tailing an English tourist. In a pâtisserie he notices a second young woman, a blonde with striking green eyes, and a chance altercation draws him into her troubles. A murder on a train bound for the Riviera follows. Lupin is soon caught between a gang of ruthless criminals, a contested inheritance, missing documents and his growing attachment to the girl at the centre of it all. Unusually for the series, he works less as a burglar than as an investigator. Readers often rank it as a minor entry in the series, with a tangled plot and a crowd of villains who are hard to tell apart, but it is a brisk, pleasant adventure with Lupin's usual charm.

Key Concepts

The novel plays on mistaken identity and disguise, and on the question of whom to trust when everyone around the heroine seems to want something from her. Greed over a disputed inheritance drives the plot. Lupin the thief takes the detective's role, serving a romantic motive as much as a criminal one.

About the Author

Maurice Leblanc (1864–1941) was a French novelist and short-story writer, born in Rouen. He began as a writer of psychological fiction before finding enormous popular success with the gentleman burglar Arsène Lupin, a character created for a French magazine.

About This Edition

This is a 1927 translation by The Macaulay Company.