Arsène Lupin, Le triangle d’or – Maurice Leblanc

Moved by the love he feels for the Florence Nightingale-like figure of Maman Coralie, First World War veteran and war-hero Captain Patrice Belval, despite having lost a leg during the war, springs into action when he learns of an attempt to abduct her by unknown foreign individuals. His disappointment at finding out that this beautiful, kind-hearted woman is already married however is compounded when he finds out that her mysterious husband, an international banker, is mixed up in a dangerous gold smuggling operation that threatens to weaken the financial position of France in a troubled world market.

But there are other mysterious forces at large and a strange fatalistic connection that exists between Patrice and Coralie, one that they discover is linked to the suspicious deaths of another Patrice and Coralie. In danger of falling victim to the same diabolical forces, there is only one person with the romantic sensibility to understand their predicament, one person with the means to unravel the mystery, to say nothing of the lure of all that missing gold – Arsène Lupin.

As ever, Le triangle d’or (The Golden Triangle) is a rattling good Arsène Lupin adventure, with all the usual twists and turns, hidden passages, diabolical traps and criminals with secret identities. The final revelations are perhaps a little more predictable that usual this time around, but caught up in the machinations of international espionage and the fate of a nation at war, they are unveiled with an extra sense of theatricality.