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A Thief in the Night (short story collection)

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A Thief in the Night
First US edition
AuthorE.W. Hornung
LanguageEnglish
SeriesA. J. Raffles
GenreCrime fiction
PublisherChatto & Windus (UK)
Publication date
1905
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Preceded byThe Black Mask 
Followed byMr. Justice Raffles 

A Thief in the Night is a 1905 collection of short stories by Ernest William Hornung, featuring his popular character A. J. Raffles. It was the third book in the series, and the final collection of short stories. In it, Raffles, a gentleman thief, commits a number of burglaries in late Victorian England.

Chronicler and accomplice Bunny Manders narrates additional adventures which he had previously omitted, from various points in their criminal careers. A full-length Raffles novel, Mr. Justice Raffles, would follow in 1909. It too was set before the Boer War, with Raffles in his heyday as a gentlemen thief.

Stories included in the book are:

  1. Out of Paradise
  2. The Chest of Silver
  3. The Rest Cure
  4. The Criminologists' Club
  5. The Field of Phillipi
  6. A Bad Night
  7. A Trap to Catch a Cracksman
  8. The Spoils of Sacrilege
  9. The Raffles Relics
  10. The Last Word