Salem Street 2: The Demoiselles de Champmas — Paul Feval

1834. Using a Pretender to the Throne of France, the powerful crime cartel known as the Black Coats plan to steal one of the largest fortunes of Europe. But from Jerusalem Street in Paris, the headquarters of the Sûreté, to the Castles of Normandy, their schemes are foiled by a new nemesis: a young street urchin nicknamed Pistolet, worthy precursor of Rouletabille and Archie Goodwin. The dreaded cabal is not so easily thwarted... In this book, for the first time, Paul Féval, the father of the modern detective novel, reveals the origins of the Black Coats and of their mysterious, seemingly eternal master, Colonel Bozzo. Long before the Corleones, Blofeld, Fu-Manchu and Moriarty, the historical saga of the Black Coats, spanning seven volumes, of which this is the first to be translated, gave its lettres de noblesse to criminal literature. "The Black Coats remain unique. They remain unchallenged as invincible architects of fiendish plots, for whom monetary gain is merely a way of keeping score, while their true purpose is to do evil for evil's sake, even--and perhaps especially--to one another.