Eight Strokes of the Clock: Eight Adventures and a Woman

This is my first time reading Lupin. I tried the first novel, but I didn't finish it, as long as I remember, or if I did, it didn't impress me so much. But I give Lupin another chance. In fact, I plan to read several of his adventures this year.

Unfortunately, I don't find the stories as very exciting. Some of them are good, but I don't find them thrilling enough. As I turned the pages, most of the time I only wanted the story to finish quickly, instead of enjoying every word of it.

Nevertheless, Eight Strokes of the Clock is by no means bad. Out of ten short stories related in the book, I find at least two of them very interesting. They are the story about the Lady with the Hatchet and Footprints in the Snow. The rest are so-so, and the final story I find too unrealistic and very dull. But maybe it's just me.

The main plot is about Prince Renine, another alias of Arsene Lupin, having 8 adventures and solving 8 mysteries with his lady friend, Hortense. She is fond of mystery, and of Renine, of course, and the more she becomes involved in his adventures, the more she loves them. Renine, also, grows fondness towards this lady, and as the term of their arrangement is coming to an end, he tries once more to get her attention, and to close their adventure with a finale - and possible sequel.

Even though I deeply love detective stories, I like them only as long as they are reasonable. If they choose to be unrealistic, they have to be good in other ways. Therefore the stories featuring nonsense instructions or bodies being chopped to pieces just for the murderer's fun (except when he is crazy) or super-smart locked rooms cases with too much trouble on the murderer's part don't entertain me. Sorry.

I'm not saying that those kind of stories exist in the book. I'm just stating that I don't like them. Hopefully the detective stories I plan to read this year won't feature too much of such stories.