The Last Job

February 1, 2019

New York Times correspondent Bilefsky hits it out of the park with this account of the "bad grandpas." With a cinematic writing style and colorful cast of characters, this book tells the story behind the players and events surrounding the 2015 Hatton Garden Heist. For many of the thieves involved, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, the capstone of their careers, and the allure of the haul caused a few of the criminals to come out of retirement. The heist, which occurred over Easter weekend, of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit in London's old diamond district, netted the criminals more than $20 million in cash, jewelry, and gold. Bilefsky's narrative weaves around the thieves and the Flying Squad, the Scotland Yard unit charged with hunting down the perpetrators. True crime enthusiasts will be drawn in by the magnitude of this offense, as well as its masterminds' personality quirks, motivations, and histories. VERDICT Recommended for most collections, especially where true crime circulates well.--Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 25, 2019
Former New York Times London correspondent Bilefsky makes good use of his access to the Scotland Yarders investigating “the biggest burglary in English history” to recreate a daring theft carried out by five thieves, who ended their retirement from a life of crime in 2015 by breaking into safety-deposit boxes. Hatton Garden Safe Deposit stored “hundreds of millions of pounds in diamonds, sapphires, gold bars, rare coins and cash” for the many jewelers who worked in that area of London. The gang, led by septuagenarian Brian Reader, planned their break-in to coincide with a three-day weekend; after casing the vault storing the safety-deposit boxes, the criminals were able to figure out what they needed to drill through its walls. Over the course of two days, the gang managed to loot about $19 million in cash and jewels, despite a close call when an alarm went off and led to a check by a security guard, who saw nothing amiss—and no police response. That choice proved highly embarrassing to Scotland Yard after the megatheft was discovered, though the criminals were apprehended fairly quickly, due to a series of missteps. Bilefsky provides just the right amount of detail in this real-life page-turner. Agent: Todd Shushter, Aevitas Creative Managment.

February 15, 2019
A raucous account of "the largest burglary in the history of England," committed by unrepentant, elderly career criminals.In his debut, Montreal-based New York Times Canada correspondent Bilefsky combines humor, pathos, and technical nitty-gritty in a clearly written procedural. In the spring of 2015, the gang burgled the vault at the Hutton Garden Safe Deposit, the central storehouse of London's diamond district, after three years of planning. The author writes that the tale's "villains," despite their physical infirmities, were "possessed by a fearlessness borne of age. What was there to lose?" The crew members resemble characters from a British crime movie, having devoted their lives to the robbery profession; indeed, the ringleader had participated in the notorious heist portrayed in the 2006 film The Bank Job. Bilefsky captures the meticulous, complex planning of the break-in, noting how "old-school burglars across London had sniffed out that something big was afoot." The robbery displayed both brazen expertise and clumsy improvisation, with the thieves even stepping out to buy additional heavy equipment to penetrate the vault: "They wanted what they'd set out to take...$19 million worth of gold, gems, diamonds, and cash." The theft's discovery created a media circus and alarmed the close-knit community of old-school jewelers. "The shock was visceral and heartbreaking," writes the author. Yet, Scotland Yard's elite Flying Squad quickly identified the malefactors by analyzing London's pervasive closed-circuit network, followed up by intensive surveillance and wiretaps, which captured the old thieves' injudicious bragging. As one detective noted, "after the heist, their age kicked in." Following mass arrests, the principal thieves struck plea bargains, leaving frustrated prosecutors to try the conspiracy's motley hangers-on. Bilefsky takes a balanced approach, acknowledging the media-cultivated public appeal of the gang's old reprobates but also noting how the losses from the safe deposit wiped out many businesses and families' savings.A well-researched, irreverent tale of a serious yet fascinating crime and the anachronistic underworld that sparked it.

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