The Cadet Gang — Paul Feval

Marguerite Sadoulas continues her efforts to wrest the fabulous fortune of the de Clares by ensnaring its rightful heirs, one-armed Clement and circus girl Lirette, in a murderous conspiracy. Meanwhile, the deadly sociopath Cadet-l'Amour has stepped into the vacuum created by the destruction of the High Council and seeks the Treasure of the Black Coats. But he is thwarted by the specter of Colonel Bozzo-Corona, the ruthless leader who ruled the evil empire for over a century and seems to have mysteriously returned from the grave... Written last in the series in 1875, before Feval was born-again, The Cadet Gang is the apotheosis in the criminal saga of the Black Coats, a sequel to both Heart of Steel and The Companions of the Treasure. Paul Feval, the father of the modern detective novel, gave its lettres de noblesse to criminal literature by creating all the modern archetypes of crime fiction.