The Good Thieves

Starred review from June 24, 2019
After a swindling Prohibition-era robber baron cheats Vita’s grandfather out of his crumbling family castle on the Hudson River, she and her mother sail from England to assist him. Vita, who developed keen throwing skills during a bout of polio, greets New York City “as
a boxer greets an opponent before a fight.” Left to her own devices, she meets three talented children: Silk, a pickpocket, and two burgeoning circus performers who live in Carnegie Hall. Russian Arkady is deeply in tune with animals, and Samuel, a boy from Mashonaland, secretly trains as a trapeze artist. To help her grandfather, Vita persuades them to join her in a heist: break into the castle and find an emerald necklace (“large as a lion’s eye”) that belonged to her beloved late grandmother. Rundell hallmarks abound—clever animals and children, themes of autonomy and cruelty (here frequently conveyed via the era’s attitudes about ability and skin color). While the narrative build and heist occasionally succumb to unlikely moments, Rundell’s (The Explorer) subtle telling and her protagonists’ grit culminate in a dazzling tale of wild hope, lingering grief, admirable self-sufficiency, and intergenerational adoration. Ages 8–12.

Margaret Cabourn-Smith gives a mesmerizing performance of this exhilarating heist story set in Prohibition-era New York City. Vita sails from England to visit her grandfather after he has been swindled out of his crumbling family mansion by a mobster. Listeners hear her indignant determination as she bands together with a young pickpocket and two circus apprentices to steal back a valuable emerald taken from the mansion. What follows is a thrilling, nonstop adventure about four kids who try to outwit the con man and his gang. Cabourn-Smith treats listeners to a wide array of voices and accents to portray British Vita and her mother, the Russian animal trainer, the Irish orphan girl, shouting newsboys in the street, and the New York thugs. S.C. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine