The Amateur Cracksman
by E. W. Hornung
The gentleman-thief Raffles is a brave, ebony, demonic handsome and first-class cricket. In these eight stories, the master robber indulges his passion for cricketing and crime: he steals jewelry from a country house, breaks the law, smuggles in newcomer riches, and, of course, bowls like a demon with the help of his brave partner Bunny. Encouraged by his son-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle, to write a series about a public school villain, and influenced by his own experience in Appingham, E. W. Hornung created a unique form of criminal history in which he played an important game in theft as well as in sports, and where there has always been honor among thieves.
