A boy detective takes on the most brilliant thief in Europe In a country manor, a terrible noise awakes the household. Downstairs, the estate's secretary has been murdered. There are signs of a break-in, but everything appears to be in its proper place. What kind of thief would commit murder to steal nothing? The first detective on the case is Isidore Beautrelet, a precocious teenager who wears a fake beard to disguise the fact that he has not yet graduated from high school. Although the other investigators do not take him seriously, Beautrelet is the one to pick up the trail of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief. Lupin, it is soon discovered, is chasing the most valuable object he has ever had the opportunity to steal: the Hollow Needle. Passed down for generations by the kings of France, it holds a secret that could undo the republic. No one has ever managed to foil one of Lupin's fiendish plans, but Beautrelet is counting on beginner's...

Framed for murder, Lupin must clear his name or face the gallows Millionaire diamond collector Rudolf Kesselbach is in a Paris hotel room, contemplating the stroke of genius that is about to make him one of the wealthiest men in Europe, when a shadow steals into the room—a shadow with fine clothes, an easy smile, and a revolver pointed at Kesselbach's chest. The intruder's name, he says, is Arsène Lupin. A few hours later, Kesselbach is found dead on the floor, Lupin's calling card pinned to his chest. With the police hot on his trail, the master jewel thief must use every ounce of his genius to escape their traps and find the man responsible for the murder. But as Lupin soon discovers, his freedom is not all that is at stake. The fate of Europe hangs in the balance as well. This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Sure, you can root for Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan or Hugh Drummond. But I’ll take a good old-fashioned rogue over the lot of 'em any day. Boston Blackie, A.J. Raffles, the Lone Wolf, Thubway Tham, Mr. Clackworthy, Arsene Lupin -- they all hold a curious fascination, dabbling as they do in crime and punishment! So take a walk on the seamy side of the Victorian era. (And yes, we are cheating with my dates a little bit. But we wanted to include a few latter-day rogues whose adventures are in the spirit of the Victorian rogues.) All told, it's more than 1,900 pages of great reading!