Originally posted May 13, 2024. “I’m asking you not to rob anyone.” “Even those who deserve it?” Arsène Lupin, gentleman burglar, might work on the opposite side of the law, but his adventures often sidle along detective story beats, whether that’s the riddle of the Hollow Needle or Lupin matching wits with an unknown serial killer. Occasionally Leblanc dabbled in straightforward mysteries… including ones that were politely stolen. ‘A Tragedy in the Forest of Morgues,’ from Confessions , is quite openly just ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ with the framing device of Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost Special’. The overall effect is of someone blusteringly recounting the plot of ‘Rue Morgue’ over the phone in the minutes before they have to catch an airplane. It’s not good, basically. This wouldn’t be the last time that Lupin directly played amateur detective. Leblanc revisited the concept in the stories collected in L’Agence Barnett et Cie . The complication...