The Companions of the Treasure — Paul Feval

For over a century, the Black Coats have ransacked Europe, accumulating wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. The location of their treasure is known only by their godfather, Colonel Bozzo-Corona, but now some members of the High Council of the criminal brotherhood have banded together to form the Companions of the Treasure, a cabal-within-the-cabal which plots to wrest that secret from their immortal master. Meanwhile, the Colonel, who once killed his own son, is now pitted against his grandson in a generational conflict of evil... Written in 1870-72, The Companions of the Treasure is a key work in Paul Féval's saga of the Black Coats and a uniquely interesting specimen in the history of the crime novel, anticipating Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty, Mario Puzo's Godfather and Robert Ludlum's Matarese Circle.