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Editorial Review Book Description
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And you prefer the other alternative, said Raffles, "to loosing your grip upon a man who's done you no harm whatever! In interest alone he's almost repaid all you lent him in the first instance; you've first-class security for the rest; yet you must ruin him to revenge yourself upon us. On us, mark you! It's against us you've got your grievance, not against old Garland or his son. You've lost sight of that fact. That little trick this morning was our doing entirely. Why don't you take it out of us? Why refuse a fair offer to spite people who have done you no harm?" ... Read more Customer Reviews (2) 
Cricketers and Usurers andYoung Ladies, Oh My!
For those following the exploits of A.J. Raffles & his amanuensis, the faithful Bunny Manders, this novel-length edition is a great augmentation to the Raffles oeuvre.Raffles finds his young friend, Teddy Garland, in embarrassed financial straits.Through extricating Teddy, Raffles & the inexorable Bunny find themselves matching wits with Dan Levy, a notorious loan shark.This incident proves to be a catalyst to the series of thrilling events which pit Dan Levy, a cunning foe, against our staunch anti-hero, Raffles.
Though mired by the heavy-handed Victorian anti-semitism embodied in the characterization (one may even say caricature) of Levy, the book, if considered in the light of the prevalent contemporary culture, is an enjoyable ride through the flipside of Holmesian England. If you can stomach the equivalent treatment of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice", then you are prepared for the rife prejudice of Hornung's portrayal of Dan Levy.
This addition to the Raffles series also features a far more profound romantic side to Raffles than seen earlier in his dalliance with the young German lady in "The Gift of the Emperor."
All in all, a suspenseful volume worthy of the legend of Raffles.
Great criminal from Conan Doyle's brother-in-law
H. R. F. Keating wrote (in Henderson's Crime & Mystery Writers) "I put E. W. Hornung's stories about A. J. Raffles, gentleman cracksman, squarely besides the Holmes tales of Conan Doyle (Hornung's brother-in-law). Both sets of stories seem to me to have that feeling of absolute rightness, perhaps the surest way of distinguishing that hard to define thing, 'the classic.'"
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