This is another random book which I borrowed from my local library, I had never heard of Maurice Leblanc but apparently he is very famous, although more so in France as you would expect.

This is a collection of short stories which seem to have been published in a magazine around 1907. The character of Arsene Lupin is variously a burglar, thief, con man and detective and the stories were styled on Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.

Well I have never liked Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing (I suppose that that is sacrilege to a lot of people and from a fellow Scot too but it is just a fact) so this wasn’t really my cup of tea either. However if you are keen on Conan Doyle then you will probably like Maurice Leblanc.

For some reason I just am not impressed with the characters which these authors came up with.

I do love vintage crime though but I think that the women crime writers were head and shoulders above the men. Sayers, Christie, Allingham, Tey and more all have an edge and style that none of the men seem to have. I wonder why?

There’s probably a Ph.D. thesis there for someone.