7 h 28 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the one person who can expose a brilliant thief is a schoolboy everyone underestimates?
A country-house burglary seems to involve murder. Raymonde de Saint-Véran fires at a fleeing intruder, yet the evidence offers no simple story. In Maurice Leblanc’s The Hollow Needle, gentleman thief Arsène Lupin faces Isidore Beautrelet, a schoolboy whose sharp eye makes him difficult to deceive.
Lupin controls appearances through disguises, false identities, and other people’s expectations. Beautrelet follows facts toward an obscure phrase: the hollow needle. Their contest grows into a hunt for hidden treasure near Étretat, where Normandy’s white cliffs and sea-worn arches become part of the puzzle. Beautrelet seeks the truth; Lupin fights to protect his greatest secret.
What you’ll discover
- An underestimated young detective Follow Beautrelet as clear reasoning makes a schoolboy a dangerous opponent for Lupin.
- A master of appearances Watch Lupin turn disguises and false identities into tools for controlling what others believe.
- Clues beyond the burglary Trace a mysterious phrase toward a hidden secret passed through French history.
- A coast full of questions Explore a puzzle whose white cliffs, natural arches, and sea-bound rock matter beyond their beauty.
- Deduction meets daring adventure Feel the tension between a young investigator seeking truth and a thief defending his freedom.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like clever detectives, daring thieves and codes that yield to careful reasoning. It suits readers who love French history, hidden treasure and a duel of minds, with a touch of romance.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A night of shots at Ambrumésy
- A false beard and a sharp mind
- Reasoning that names Arsène Lupin
- The chapel, the crypt and the Hollow Needle
- Face to face with Lupin
- The castle on the Creuse
- A secret passed from king to king
- Following the legend to the sea
- Open, sesame
- What the story says about its people
Who’s who
- Isidore BeautreletA seventeen-year-old schoolboy with a gift for reasoning, who wants to solve the mystery of Ambrumésy and uncover the secret of the Hollow Needle.
- Arsène LupinThe gentleman thief who plans every move in advance, moves between many disguises, and wants both his hidden treasure and the love of one woman.
- Raymonde de Saint-VéranA brave young woman who shoots the fleeing burglar, then shelters him, and whose fate shapes the whole story.
- Inspector GanimardA veteran police inspector who has chased Lupin for years and wants to capture him at last.
- M. FilleulThe examining magistrate, ambitious and ironic, who is quick to rely on the schoolboy's brilliance.
- Holmlock ShearsThe proud English detective who cannot forget past defeats and is determined to meet Lupin face to face.
- Comte de GesvresThe owner of Ambrumésy, a wealthy man who keeps painful secrets about his household and his Rubens paintings.
- Louis ValmérasThe cheerful owner of a castle on the Creuse, who offers to help Beautrelet rescue his father.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 28 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear L’Aiguille creuse in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
L’Aiguille creuse
by Maurice Leblanc · 1909
A schoolboy detective with a false beard takes on Arsène Lupin, and a coded paper points to a secret as old as Caesar.
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In short
The Hollow Needle is an Arsène Lupin novel by Maurice Leblanc, a French writer who made the gentleman burglar one of the best-loved rogues in crime fiction. It follows a night of murder and theft at a Norman château, and then a duel of wits between a master thief and a seventeen-year-old schoolboy.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A night of shots at Ambrumésy
The story opens in the small hours at the Château d'Ambrumésy in Normandy. Raymonde de Saint-Véran hears noises below her window, and her cousin Suzanne calls to her from the next room. From the window they see two men crossing the park with bundles, and a ladder against the balcony.
The girls hear a struggle and a groan. Raymonde runs down to the drawing room, where a man with a lantern calmly bows to them and leaves. In the boudoir lie her uncle, the Comte de Gesvres, and his secretary, Jean Daval. Daval has been stabbed.
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What is The Hollow Needle about?
It follows Isidore Beautrelet, a schoolboy detective, as he investigates a murder and strange theft at a Norman château. His hunt for Arsène Lupin leads to a coded paper and a secret treasure said to have been guarded by French kings.
What is the Hollow Needle in the book?
It is the key to a centuries-old royal secret. The name appears in a coded paper that Beautrelet decodes as the words aiguille creuse, meaning hollow needle, and the whole chase is about what those words mean.
Who is Isidore Beautrelet?
He is a seventeen-year-old sixth-form student at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly who is nicknamed the rival of Holmlock Shears. He solves crimes by reasoning from the facts in newspapers, then uses the same method against Lupin.
The author
Maurice Leblanc
1864–1941 · French mystery novelist
Maurice Leblanc was a French writer born in Rouen in 1864. He wrote novels and short stories, including the Arsène Lupin series, which began in 1905. His books include The Hollow Needle, published in 1909, and The Crystal Stopper, published in 1912. He died in Perpignan in 1941.
More by Maurice Leblanc
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