‘It is as though, during my delirium, all the mysterious powers of my brain had collaborated to assimilate entirely those hateful memories.’

Although famed for his tales featuring Arsène Lupin, the iconic gentleman thief, Maurice Leblanc also wrote gripping standalone tales of crime, history and adventure, of which Woman of Mystery is no exception.

Set in 1914, Woman of Mystery centres around the world of Paul Delroze. On the evening before the Second World War, a painful memory rears its ugly head: his father, a decorated veteran who served in the Franco-Prussian War, being brutally murdered at the hands of an unidentified German woman, as Paul and his father were taking an innocent stroll through the French countryside when he was a child. At his core, Paul always knew the day when the two nations – Germany and France – would fight again, and once he heard the call for battle, he was determined to take revenge once and for all. A profound insight into the realities of war and the poignancy of vengeance, The Woman of Mystery is a lost classic of French writing. This audiobook edition is wonderfully narrated by Rupert Degas.

Maurice Leblanc (1864 – 1941) was a French journalist, novelist and short story writer. He was primarily known for inventing the fictional thief Arsène Lupin, often considered the French counterpart to Sherlock Holmes.