The Teeth of the Tiger

Leblanc published The Teeth of the Tiger in 1914, and it represents one of the strangest turns in the Lupin series. Lupin is now in his late thirties, presumed dead in some accounts, and is moving through the book as Don Luis Perenna, a wealthy Spanish-Moroccan adventurer apparently unconnected to his old life. An American millionaire dies, leaving a complicated will involving a chain of inheritors and a clue pointing to who the next victim will be. The bodies start piling up.

The investigation moves between Paris and the United States, which is unusual for the early Lupin novels and gives the book a strange international flavor. The teeth of the tiger in the title refer to a literal puncture-mark clue that links the murders. The plot is heavier and slower than the short stories, and Lupin himself is less playful here, more haunted. Worth reading after the lighter books because it shows Leblanc trying to age his character honestly rather than reset him each time.