The greatest thief in France challenges the greatest detective in England. What unfolds is a dazzling game of cat and mouse across the boulevards of Paris and the French countryside, where every move reveals only another layer of the puzzle. Arsène Lupin, the aristocratic master of disguise, has stolen compromising letters from the beautiful Duchess of Darblay. Herlock Sholmes, pompous, brilliant, and quite possibly the most entertaining detective ever written, is called to recover them. But Lupin never steals anything without purpose, and Sholmes soon discovers this case is less about stolen letters and more about a battle of egos between two men who each believe they are the smartest mind in Europe. Leblanc wrote this novel as a love letter to detective fiction, then subtverted it entirely, creating something that crackles with wit and playful defiance. It is, at its heart, a question posed to the reader: who would you root for, the criminal who steals from the corrupt, or the law that protects them?
X-Ray
