Character guide

Arsène Lupin

major

Also known as Lupin, Master Lupin, Master Arsène Lupin, M. Lupin, Arsène

Lupin moves through Paris in disguises — retired tradesman, muffled idler on a park bench — while the police close in and his own men betray him. What unbalances him is not danger but affection: he likes Gilbert, the careless boy he half raised into the trade, and cannot bear that the lad will die for a murder he never committed. Everything in the early chase narrows to one object, the crystal stopper, and Lupin's instinct tells him it is worth more than any loot he has ever stolen.

Alexis Daubrecq

major

Also known as Daubrecq, M. Daubrecq, M. Nicole, the Daubrecq bird

Daubrecq collects deputies the way other men collect stamps, and he keeps his grip through a bundle of documents tied to the Canal scandal. Twenty-five years ago Clarisse Darcel chose another man over him, and he has spent the decades since repaying that refusal — corrupting her son, wrecking her husband, threatening her with his long arms and his sarcasm. He is the enemy Lupin must break, and the crystal stopper is the one thing he seems to fear losing.

Clarisse Mergy

major

Also known as Mergy, Clarisse, Mme. Mergy

Clarisse was Clarisse Darcel when three young men in Nice loved her; she married Victorien Mergy, and Daubrecq's revenge has been unfolding ever since — her husband dead by his own hand, her son Gilbert raised into crime, her name dragged through scandal. In Daubrecq's rooms she reaches for a water-bottle stopper and then for a dagger, and Lupin, watching, realizes she is hunting the same object he is. Her desperation is the story's engine: every move Lupin makes is measured against the question of whether Gilbert lives.

Gilbert

major

Also known as Gilbert, Gilbert's

Gilbert is the boy Daubrecq stole from his parents and trained toward the scaffold, and the boy Lupin took on afterward and could not quite save. He is frank, funny, careless with his life, and utterly loyal — he would die at a sign from his master, and the law intends to make him do exactly that. His imprisonment forces Lupin into the open and turns a burglary gone wrong into a race against a fixed execution date.

Prasville

supporting

Also known as M. Prasville, Louis Prasville, Master Prasville, the famous Prasville

Prasville is the respectable face of the pursuit — a former barrister and explorer, now a senior official with the power to move police and press. But his friend Vorenglade, a penniless ex-deputy, holds documents proving Prasville's complicity in the Twenty-Seven affair, and Daubrecq knows it. He is Clarisse's last official hope and, at the same time, a man with everything to lose, which makes him both an ally of convenience and a liability Lupin cannot trust.

Vaucheray

supporting

Also known as a Vaucheray

Vaucheray is the older, harder partner in the job that went wrong, and his fate is bound to Gilbert's by a single verdict. The police are in no mood to untangle who did what at the villa; they want a conviction quickly, and Vaucheray's presence in the case is what makes Gilbert's position so nearly hopeless. He matters less as a person than as the weight dragging Gilbert toward the scaffold — and as the reason Lupin cannot simply walk away.

Victoire

supporting

Victoire moves between Daubrecq's counters and Lupin's whispered instructions, an aging servant whose access to the enemy's bedroom is worth more than any disguise. She is loyal but not fearless: when Lupin tells her to return the stolen stopper, she moans, "Oh dear, oh dear!" and flies out at him when he laughs at her predicament. Her terror and her willingness to go back anyway keep the early burglary plot grounded in flesh and consequence.

Sébastiani

supporting

Sébastiani serves the Marquis d'Albufex as a kind of domestic instrument of cruelty, obeyed by his own sons and unflinching at the bedside where Daubrecq is bound. He is the hand, not the will: he tightens, loosens, bandages wrists, offers brandy, and suggests they might try again tomorrow. His calm competence makes the torture scene unbearable and shows how far the marquis's faction will go for the list.

Masher

supporting

Also known as the Masher, The Masher

The Masher arrives in a chauffeur's uniform to carry a trunk down from a hotel room and drive it toward Paris at thirty miles an hour, turn and turn about. He is the practical arm of Lupin's schemes, trusted with Daubrecq's drugged captivity and the timing that keeps the whole abduction from collapsing. His reward is conditional forgiveness, which makes his steadiness both a professional asset and a quiet gamble.

Stanislas Vorenglade

supporting

Also known as Vorenglade, M. Vorenglade

Vorenglade belongs to the circle around Clarisse Mergy, one of the few figures whose loyalty is not bought or coerced. He assists in the efforts to save Gilbert and to counter Daubrecq's hold over the Twenty-Seven, providing the kind of ordinary decency that throws the surrounding intrigue into relief. His role is quiet but steadying, a reminder that not everyone in the affair is playing a double game.

Jacques

supporting

Also known as little Jacques

Little Jacques is the reason Clarisse cannot simply walk away from Daubrecq, and the reason Lupin's promise to her carries such weight. When Lupin warns her that ruining herself would make the boy "the brother of a man condemned to death," the stakes of the entire rescue become domestic and unbearable. Jacques never appears as a presence so much as a pressure, the child whose safety determines how far his mother will go.

D'Albufex

supporting

Also known as d'Albufex, M. le Marquis, The Marquis d'Albufex, Marquis

D'Albufex holds Daubrecq bound and questions him for the fourth and final time, ordering Sébastiani to turn the stick while he leans close with the lamp. He is not a brute by temperament — he calls the business "dirty" and offers brandy afterward — but he will not give way, because the list of the Twenty-Seven is the key to everything he wants. His cold determination makes him the most dangerous of Lupin's rivals in the early–middle arc.

Growler

minor

Also known as the Growler, The Growler

Lupin's loyal dog, used in the investigation.

Victorien Mergy

minor

Also known as Victorien

Clarisse Mergy's deceased husband, mentioned in backstory.

Léonard

minor

Also known as Léonard

Daubrecq's brutish servant and henchman.

Germineaux

minor

Police official involved in the case against Gilbert.

Jacob

minor

Also known as M. Jacob, Master Jacob

Daubrecq's lawyer and confidant.

Achille

minor

Lupin's accomplice, helps with disguises and logistics.

Michel Beaumont

minor

Also known as M. Michel Beaumont, Michel, de Beaumont

Alias used by Lupin during the investigation.

Chief-Inspector Blanchon

minor

Also known as Blanchon, Chief-inspector Blanchon

Police inspector in charge of the initial arrests.

M. Lartigue

minor

Lawyer representing Gilbert in court.

Euphrasie Rousselot

minor

Also known as Euphrasie

Daubrecq's housekeeper, provides information to Lupin.

Brindebois

minor

Also known as Old Brindebois, old Brindebois

Old friend of Lupin, helps with the investigation.

Antoine Mergy

minor

Also known as Antoine

Clarisse Mergy's brother, assists in the plot.

Marie

minor

Also known as the Villa Marie-Thérèse

Nun at the convent where Clarisse stays.