The Teeth of the Tiger
1914
One hundred million francs. Three months to find the heirs. A fortune that could belong to Don Luis Perenna if he fails. This is the elegant trap that Maurice Leblanc constructs in his 1914 masterpiece, a propulsive adventure that proves the master of French crime fiction could do more than create Arsène Lupin: he could reimagine him. Perenna, the mysterious former Legionnaire who walks among Paris elite as easily as he walks through locked rooms, accepts what should be a simple task: execute the will of the recently deceased Mornington and distribute the inheritance. But when heirs begin dropping like flies, each death more suspicious than the last, Perenna finds himself hunted by a killer who will stop at nothing and suspected by a police force that has never trusted him. With Inspector Vérot's mysterious death casting its shadow over the investigation, Perenna must solve the puzzle of the missing heirs while navigating a web of betrayal, hidden motives, and a fortune that makes murder seem rational. Leblanc weaves period Paris atmosphere with relentless momentum, delivering the kind of thriller that made him the French Arthur Conan Doyle. This is adventure fiction at its most addictive: clever, fast-paced, and anchored by a protagonist who is both thief and hero, criminal and defender.
Editions
X-Ray
“Through the papers?" said Sauverand. "I never used to read them. What! Is that incredible? Are we under an obligation, an inevitable necessity, to waste half an hour a day in skimming through the futilities of policies and the piffle of the news columns? Is your imagination incapable of conceiving a man who reads nothing but reviews and scientific publications?["]””
— Maurice Leblanc
“[T]he one whom the men called Arsène Lupin, but whom the officers called simply the Hero, the one who we used to say was as brave as d'Artagnan, as strong as Porthos...And as mysterious as Monte Cristo[.]””
— Maurice Leblanc
