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This was my introduction to Arsène Lupin, the French Raffles; thanks to Project Gutenberg, I have several other of Maurice Leblanc's novels about him sitting on my e-reader.

The novel consists of two closely linked novellas, in each of which the renowned English detective Herlock Sholmes is commissioned to come to Paris, accompanied as ever by stout-hearted numbskull amanuensis Dr. Wilson, to solve a crime that's assumed to have at its heart the legendary figure of master criminal Arsène Lupin. For his part, Lupin relishes the challenge of crossing mental swords with the only man on earth intelligent and resourceful enough to be a worthy rival.

The cases themselves, as cases, aren't especially interesting -- these are adventures rather than exercises in ratiocination or the profundities of human motivation -- but the tales dance along entertainingly enough, with some pleasing twists of plot. All in all, this is light, fluffy stuff: I imagine that by this time next week I'll be hard-pressed to remember much about the book, but it was fun while I was reading it.