A Thief in the Night

By this third collection, published in 1905, A. J. Raffles has become one of the most beloved rogues in English fiction: a gentleman by day, a burglar by night, and always a step ahead of Scotland Yard. Narrated as ever by his loyal, faintly hapless friend Bunny Manders, these stories fill in the gaps of the pair’s earlier career, from their first tentative crimes as respectable men about town to a later life on the run. Hornung conceived Raffles as a deliberate inversion of Sherlock Holmes, and the appeal lies in rooting for the thief. Wit, nerve, and a streak of real feeling run through every escapade, along with a shadow of the reckoning that trails such a life. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.