The Hollow Needle

The Hollow Needle is a crime novel written by Maurice Leblanc in 1909 after being serialized in the French magazine Je sais tout (1908–1909).

A baffling murder and a trail of cryptic clues point toward a centuries-old legend: a secret cache of France’s crown jewels hidden inside a coastal rock spire known as the hollow needle. A brilliant young sleuth pits mind against a celebrated gentleman thief, and the contest becomes a duel of deductions, disguises, and ciphers.

The chase sweeps from Paris salons to Normandy cliffs, through riddles embedded in history, locked rooms, and false identities. Each solved clue tightens the net—and reveals a larger design tying together missing manuscripts, vanished fortunes, and the map no one knew they were reading.

Mixing caper zest with classical detection, Leblanc delivers elegant puzzles with page-turning momentum. The Hollow Needle endures as a standout in the Lupin cycle: a swift, witty adventure built on ingenious plotting and the romance of hidden treasure.

"Raymonde listened. The noise was repeated twice over, clearly enough to be distinguished from the medley of vague sounds that formed the great silence of the night and yet too faintly to enable her to tell whether it was near or far, within the walls of the big country-house, or outside, among the murky recesses of the park".