Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (Dover Mystery Classics)

Dashing man-about-town by day and thief by night, A. J. Raffles offered Victorian readers a new kind of hero, a morally ambiguous character who anticipated the hardboiled detectives of 20th-century crime fiction. Raffles' position as a professional cricket player and prominent member of society provides the perfect cover for his burglaries. These sparklingly witty stories, narrated by Raffles' admiring accomplice, inspired numerous stage and screen adaptations. AUTHOR: In his youth, E. W. Hornung (1866 1921) was sent from his home in England to Australia to improve his health. He returned home to find his family destitute and resolved to restore their fortunes by writing popular books, a goal he quickly achieved with a series of tales about life in the outback. Inspired by the success of the Sherlock Holmes stories - written by his brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle - Hornung created the celebrated Raffles adventures.