A Thief in the Night: New Adventures of Raffles

What makes Raffles appealing? He’s a gentleman, a man of principles. He’s handsome and in great shape — the England cricket champion. At the same time, he’s a brilliant swindler who pulls off affairs so subtle and complex that you can hardly believe it. Raffles doesn’t use violence; he doesn’t strip his victims of everything — his illegal deeds are right on the edge of high art. When preparing and committing crimes, he values above all the beauty of the plan and the virtuosity of carrying it out.

“Raffles: The Gentleman Thief” (1905) is Hornung’s third collection of stories about Raffles. The author left the hero alone both on open sea and under the cannonade of the Anglo-Boer War. Yet the hero is with us again — and so is his faithful assistant Bunny, a gentleman who failed as a journalist and went down the slippery path of crime, narrating their adventures together. This book describes events that happened before the ending of the second collection. And here, Raffles’s contradictory nature is revealed — a man balancing between observance of the principles of honor and a passion for theft. Combining the two seems impossible, but… you’ll learn the details by listening to the audiobook.

Stories about Raffles have been adapted for theater and film many times; a TV series titled “Raffles” (1975) was made based on them.