Auguste Lupa Books in Order

The Auguste Lupa novels are John Lescroart's affectionate nod to classic detective fiction. Set during World War I, they introduce Auguste Lupa, a brilliant and somewhat enigmatic young man rumored to be the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. He has the deductive flair and prickly temperament you would expect from that heritage, along with a taste for good food, comfort, and careful planning.

In Son of Holmes, Lupa arrives in a small French town under the cover of working as a chef. His real assignment is to find the German agent behind a series of acts of sabotage and the murder of an Allied intelligence officer. The story is told through the eyes of Jules Giraud, a wealthy local landowner drawn into espionage almost against his will. As more violence hits close to home, Lupa sifts through a tight circle of suspects, weighing their politics, personal grudges, and wartime loyalties.

Rasputin's Revenge shifts the action to Russia at the height of the Tsar's troubled reign. Summoned to the Winter Palace, Lupa finds himself navigating the dangerous court around Tsarina Alexandra, the influence of Rasputin, and a plot involving the murder of a member of the royal family. The book blends palace intrigue with a traditional whodunit structure, and even allows brief, knowing appearances by Holmes and Watson.

Across both books, Lescroart has fun with the idea that Lupa may be the younger version of another famous detective from American crime fiction. The character's love of rich food, orchids, and solitude, as well as his disdain for certain social niceties, echo traits that fans of Nero Wolfe will recognize, without ever turning the stories into simple parody.

The tone is different from the contemporary Dismas Hardy novels. The Lupa books move at a slightly more leisurely pace, pausing for meals, conversations, and little character reveals even as spy plots unfold. They reward readers who enjoy period detail: uniforms, telegraph offices, country estates, and the shifting map of Europe during the war.

You can read either title on its own, but taken together they form a compact arc about a young spy detective learning which secrets to expose and which to keep. For readers who like Sherlock Holmes pastiches, historical mysteries, or the idea of connecting fictional families across different authors, Auguste Lupa offers a clever side door into Lescroart's work.