The Hollow Needle

The Hollow Needle (1910) is a novel by Maurice Leblanc. Originally serialized in in Je sais tout, a popular French magazine, The Hollow Needle is a crime and adventure novel featuring the legendary Arsène Lupin. Partly based on the life of French anarchist Marius Jacob, Lupin first appeared in print in 1905 as an answer to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Blending crime fiction, fantasy, and mystery, Leblanc crafts original and entertaining tales of adventure starring one of the greatest literary characters of all time—Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief.

Arsène Lupin is the world’s greatest thief, an unmatched force for good whose exploits threaten the wealth and standing of France’s most wicked men. In this installment of Leblanc’s beloved series, Lupin uses his remarkable wit and chameleon-like ability to move undetected through aristocratic society in order to steal, trick, and cheat his way through life. Despite his criminal nature, he operates under a strict moral code, only taking from those who have taken from the poor all their lives. In this novel, Lupin discovers the secret of the Kings of France, leading him to a hidden hoard of jewels passed down since the days of the Roman Empire. On his trail is amateur detective Isidore Beautrelet, a high school boy determined to stop Lupin from completing the theft of a lifetime. Despite his youth and inexperience, he proves surprisingly capable of catching the gentleman thief. The Hollow Needle is a story of romance, mystery, and crime that continues to astound over a century after it was published.

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