Emile Gaboriau 
Within an Inch of His Life 

This early work by Emile Gaboriau was originally published in the late 19th century and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. ‘Within an Inch of His Life’ is one of Gaboriau’s novels of crime and mystery. Emile Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime, France. During his twenties, he became a secretary to Paul Feval – a an author now regarded as one of the fathers of modern crime fiction, whose Jean Diable (1862) is seen as the world’s first modern detective novel.