Hard on the publication of Sherlock Holmes, there came another book of crime stories, with a shrewd, fearless protagonist, a master of disguise, and his less clever sidekick. The Raffles stories by EW Hornung, Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law — now published in a new selection — differed fundamentally from the original, for they featured the criminal as hero, or anti-hero.
AJ Raffles is one of the most urbane and fanciable of thieves; his friend Bunny hero-worships him and, when Bunny is threatened with disgrace when he can’t honour his gambling debts, he follows Raffles’ lead into a life of crime as a rather useful Watson, always several steps behind his clever friend.
