Title: 813
Author: Maurice Leblanc
About the Book: Fiction, Comedy, Adventure, Thievery, Disguise, Mystery!
My rating: 9/10.
Arsene Lupin! Gods, I love this guy. A charming, intelligent, moral thief who has adventures and whatnot. A master of disguise, of trickery, of drama, of jokes - and since we all have weaknesses, one of mine is tricksters. When I saw "813" in a second hand bookshop, I whisked it away in my backpack and ran home with it (after paying for it, of course).
"813" didn't disappoint. I'm afraid I can't discuss the plot, since any discussion whatsoever would lead to spoilers. There's twists and turns at every step and you never know exactly where you land. To give you a flavor of things, Arsene Lupin is accused of murder, which is the one things he never does. So with the police at his back, he rushes forward to find the real criminals and discover the answer behind the mystery of a young man and an important note saying simply '813'.
There's international politics involved and a bit of a French 'take that!' against Sherlock Holmes. For some strange reason, while his name in the original French (and in my translated Romanian) is Herlock Sholmes, in English they translated it as Holmlock Shears. Translators. Go figure.
So it's a thrilling, light-hearted adventure, cheery, fast-paced, engaging. The only reason why I didn't give it a 10/10 is because the style is somewhat sketched and jolted and despite my fangirl enthusiasm about Lupin, it kept nagging at me during my reading. But that's a small fault.
You can find it for free here.
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