Thick as Thieves

Starred review from May 16, 2011
Superlative prose lifts this gritty stand-alone from Shamus Awardâwinner Spiegelman (Black Maps). When a self-professed robber ("cash and highly liquid items only") asks former CIA agent Carr to assume the leadership of a group of highly skilled thieves, Carr, who's been using his gifts to anticipate problems and organize sophisticated schemes for criminal purposes in Houston, reluctantly accepts. The group is aiming at its richest prize yet­âtens of millions of dollars belonging to a disgraced financier, Curtis Prager, who evaded conviction for money laundering and conspiracy after the key witness against him fortunately died and now runs a financial services company for organized criminals in the Caymans. To loot Prager, the team must penetrate multiple layers of securityâboth physical and cyber. Carr must also contend with his father's failing health and the possibility that one of his people is a traitor. Spiegelman, who has worked in both financial services and software industries, makes the mission both intricate and plausible.

Starred review from September 15, 2011
Techno thieves fall out.

Recruited and led by Declan, the kind of happy warrior who makes risk part of the fun, this information-age gang of five has done very well over the years. Larger than life, yes, but smart withal, Declan has an unerring instinct for talent: Bobby and Latin Mike, seasoned and tough, are thoroughly professional; Dennis is on a fast track to the hackers' hall of fame; slinky Valerie can seduce a statue. And then there's Carr, with "an engineer's eye for operations," the last to be recruited. Carr stifles all emotion, as if not to do so were to give an essentially hostile world an unwarranted edge. But this ex-CIA officer can be explosive. He is where he is now—a thief among thieves—because in a temper-tossed moment he punched out someone he absolutely shouldn't have. And tightly wrapped Carr is surprisingly susceptible. Valerie quickly has him off balance. Success, once almost a given, has now become unsettlingly unpredictable, a situation greatly intensified by the sudden loss of their leader. Carr attempts to fill the vacuum, but with only limited effectiveness. Operations are one kind of thing, he learns, charisma quite another. Sniping develops, smoldering enmities flare up and flicker out, but all recognize that something inimical has sunk roots in their thieves' den. One last job then, a big one, computer centered and extremely dangerous. Pull it off and they go home rich. Screw it up and maybe they don't go home at all.

Character-driven with a protagonist as enigmatic as he is compelling. But what really sets this apart is the quality of Spiegelman's writing: "Backlit on the 14th tee, Mr. Boyce is a slab of granite escaped from the quarry, or spare parts from Stonehenge." It's not every day genre prose gets that kind of polish (Red Cat, 2007, etc.).

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December 1, 2010

Spiegelman's new thriller caught my eye because all his works--Black Maps, which won the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel, plus Death's Little Helpersand Red Cat--got the "highly recommended" stamp of approval from LJ. Here, a former CIA agent who's gone bad plans the heist of the century; diamonds and money laundering are involved. But little things start going wrong. Thriller fans should investigate.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2011
Ever read a thriller so nicely written you flip back a few pages to reexperience an especially well-turned bit of prose? Spiegelman's caper novel is like that. A woman's long, limber body is like a burning fuse. A tough guy is a slab of granite escaped from the quarry. The fine writing adds a layer of aesthetic pleasure to a good crime story. The cast are genre stand-bys: a computer geek, a financial whiz, a woman who has interests of her own. Carr, their leader, is another type: a burnout who's blown attempts at steady employment by slugging his bosses and now desperately wants this scam to work so he can afford to retire. Together they bring off a sweeping symphony of a con, a grand attempt to relieve a bad guy of his gazillions. When it's over, Carr's pals turn out to be skunks. Clich's, yes, but they're being put to imaginative use as part of the tricky buildup to the finale. The novel is all about its surprise ending, the moment when we meet Carr's employer, and what has come before sets us up to be blindsided. The ending is great, but it's an even greater trip getting there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)