Alias the Lone Wolf, published in 1921, is the third in the 8-book series about a reformed French jewel thief, Michael Lanyard--the Lone Wolf. This story is set in the years after the Great War (World War I), and Lanyard has ended his connection to the British Secret Service. He is enjoying some leisure time in the south of France near an area called the Cévennes. He's using the name Andre Duchemin, which he used in the previous story. While a guest at the Chateau de Montalay, he falls for the young heiress there, Eve, and he also meets the Countess de Lorgnes or Liane Delorme, who turns out to have a shady past and a manipulative nature. One night, thieves break into the Chateau, steal Eve's jewels, and injure Duchemin in the struggle.

After recovering, Duchemin begins a quest to recover the jewels for Eve but quickly realizes he's also a target of Bolsheviks and other criminals, who have spread the rumor that blames Duchemin for the theft. So he flees the chateau, shaves his beard, loses the criminal who is trailing him on the way to Paris, and continues the quest, now as Michael Lanyard. He eventually follows the trail of the jewels to a small ship, crossing the Atlantic and bound for New York, with a criminal gang (which includes Liane) bent on smuggling the jewels and alcohol into the Prohibition U.S. Lanyard calls on his expertise in reading people and his Lone Wolf skills of finding his way out of the tightest jams, to arrive in New York, having stolen the jewels back from the jewel thieves.

The Lone Wolf series was also made into 24 films between 1914 and 1949, as well as radio and television dramas. Louis Joseph Vance (1879-1933) was a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and early-day film producer who worked in the movies for a time in Los Angeles. His body of work includes short stories and verse and many popular novels. Vance died at age 54, in an accidental fire in his New York City apartment.