The Man upon the Stair

Chief Inspector Achille Lefebvre returns from a much-needed vacation to find that there are assassins on his tail, and, as if that weren’t enough, one of France’s wealthiest men has gone missing without a trace…

In The Man Upon the Stair, Gary Inbinder’s brilliant detective Achille Lefebvre returns to solve the mystery of a disappeared millionaire in the sensational, atmospheric world of fin-de-siècle Paris.

At the public execution of the anarchist assassin Laurent Moreau, the outgoing Chief Inspector warns his protégé, the newly promoted Lefebvre: “I’ve heard that some of Moreau’s cronies have sworn revenge. You don’t want to get killed your first week as chief.”

Meanwhile, Lefebvre is charged with investigating the disappearance of the Baron de Livet, a brash millionaire with connections to Russian spies and a history of gambling, womanizing, and fighting in duels. The case is more complicated than it seems, of course, and Lefebvre and his team must make sense of a poisoned maid, an unidentifiable stage coach, and a missing briefcase full of cash. The Baron’s connection to the world of international espionage means that if the Inspector isn’t fast enough, the Baron’s disappearance might trigger a war.

And Lefebvre mustn’t forget those stalking anarchists who are out for his blood, as he searches for the man who wasn’t there…

Gary Inbinder is the author of The Devil in Montmartre and The Hanged Man and his fiction, articles, and essays have appeared in Bewildering Stories, Halfway Down the Stairs, The Absent Willow Review, Morpheus Tales, Litsnack, Touchstone Magazine, and other publications. He is a member of both the Historical Novel Society and the Bewildering Stories Editorial Review Board. He lives in Woodland Hills, California.