About the book

Ernest William Hornung was an English author and poet perhaps best known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London. In 1898 he wrote "In the Chains of Crime," which introduced Raffles and his sidekick, Bunny Manders; the characters were based partly on his friends Oscar Wilde and his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, and also on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The series of Raffles short stories were collected for sale in book form in 1899, and two further books of Raffles short stories followed, as well as a poorly received novel. Since his friend and partner in crime, A. J. Raffles, jumped into the Mediterranean, Bunny Manders has scraped along as best he can. At Raffles's side, he was witness to, and participant in, the most ingenious burglaries the underworld had ever seen. Without him, Bunny is a struggling ex-convict, so down on his luck that he answers an ad seeking a male nurse and companion for a notoriously rude invalid. But when he lights the old man's Sullivan cigarette and sees a perfect smoke ring float into the air, Bunny cries out in delight. Raffles is back, and ready for adventure. In the second installment in E. W. Hornung's crackerjack crime series, England's greatest jewel thief is up to all of his old tricks and many ingenious new ones-none so spectacular as turning Queen Victoria herself into an accomplice.