少年探偵団

Private detective Akechi Kogoro is teaming up with a gang of curious boys to first solve the mystery of a black demon before going against a phantom thief.

With this being a children’s book from 1937 I’m not sure if it will rank as high on other people’s lists but for me personally it was a lot of fun analyzing how this series definded the “detective vs. phantom thief” trope on the Japanese side. Be advised though that not everything holds up to modern standards and especially the chapters where the main suspects are wizards from India show a lot of xenophobia.