Thick as Thieves (Spiegelman novel)

Last updated

Thick as Thieves
Peter Spiegelman - Thick as Thieves.jpg
Author Peter Spiegelman
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Crime
Publisher Knopf
Publication date
July 26, 2011 (2011-07-26)
Media typePrint (Softcover & Hardcover)
Pages295
ISBN 978-0-3072-6317-9
OCLC 676726624

Thick as Thieves is a 2011 novel by American author Peter Spiegelman. The book is the fifth novel by Spiegelman and was released on July 26, 2011 in the United States through Knopf. The story surrounds a group of thieves following their reluctant leader Carr as he plans a million-dollar heist of a criminals compound. The novel was well received.

Contents

Plot

Thick as Thieves follows a group of high-end criminals and their reluctant leader Carr. Carr was inducted as a thief by the group's previous leader, Declan (aka "Deke") who died during the getaway from their previous job, and feels that he is not the right person to take over the role, despite this having been Declans overall intention for him. The group plan to steal millions of dollars from a former hedge fund manager named Curtis Prager, who is now engaging in large amounts of illegal activity.

Publication history

Reception

The book was well received, with reviewers praising Spiegelman's prose and ability to create an interesting story using a clichéd premise. [1] [2]

Tom Nolan, for the Wall Street Journal , stated that "there's no dearth of heart-pounding, pulse-racing, stomach-dropping moments" in the novel. He also praised the prose, stating that "Mr. Spiegelman describes things with flair", finding that "Such prose creates a special tension and pictorial vividness, to add to the book's intelligently structured thriller plot", concluding that "readers may find themselves lingering over many of these well-wrought phrases before racing to the final exciting page." [3] Kirkus Reviews also praised Speigelmans writing, finding the novel to be "Character-driven with a protagonist as enigmatic as he is compelling. But what really sets this apart is the quality of Spiegelman's writing"; "it's not every day genre prose gets that kind of polish." [1] Bruce Tierney, for BookPage, called the story a "genre-defining heist novel", concluding that "Thick as Thieves is a superbly crafted tale, pulsing with tension, twisty as a corkscrew and positively demanding to be read in one sitting." [4] Rob Brunner, for Entertainment Weekly , awarded the novel a score of "B+", stating that while the novel features "some stock characters and a premise as clichéd as its title", it is also a "well-constructed crime thriller". Brunner goes on to state that he found the novel to be "a complex, satisfying tale" and praised "Spiegelman's sharp prose and deft plotting". [2]

Awards and nominations

The novel was recognised Kirkus Reviews editor Elaine Szewczyk as one of the "Best Fiction novels of 2011". [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Corridors of Power</i> (novel) 1964 novel by C.P. Snow

Corridors of Power is the ninth book in C. P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series. Its title had become a household phrase referring to the centres of government and power after Snow coined it in his earlier novel, Homecomings.

<i>Nobody Lives for Ever</i> Novel by John Gardner (British writer)

Nobody Lives for Ever, first published in 1986, was the fifth novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape and in the United States by Putnam.

<i>Green Shadows, White Whale</i> 1992 novel by Ray Bradbury

Green Shadows, White Whale is a 1992 novel by Ray Bradbury. It gives a fictionalized account of his journey to Ireland in 1953-1954 to write a screen adaptation of the novel Moby-Dick with director John Huston. Bradbury has said he wrote it after reading actress Katharine Hepburn's account of filming The African Queen with Huston in Africa. The title itself is a play on Peter Viertel's novel White Hunter, Black Heart, which is also about Huston.

<i>The Italian Secretary</i> 2005 novel by Caleb Carr

The Italian Secretary is mystery fiction by Caleb Carr featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. This literary pastiche had the approval of the Doyle estate having originally been commissioned as a short story for the collection Ghosts of Baker Street which then expanded into a novel.

<i>My Name Is Red</i> 1998 Turkish novel by Orhan Pamuk

My Name Is Red is a 1998 Turkish novel by writer Orhan Pamuk translated into English by Erdağ Göknar in 2001. The novel, concerning miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire of 1591, established Pamuk's international reputation and contributed to his reception of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.

<i>Austenland</i> 2007 novel by Shannon Hale

Austenland is a 2007 novel by Shannon Hale, published by Bloomsbury. It follows protagonist Jane Hayes, a graphic designer living in New York City who is secretly obsessed with Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice, specifically Colin Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation. Her aunt dies and, in her will, leaves Jane a trip to an Austen theme park in the English countryside, where customers and actors role-play as characters in the Regency era. The novel is the first in Hale's Austenland series, followed by Midnight in Austenland. A film based on the first novel was released in 2013, starring Keri Russell and directed by Jerusha Hess.

<i>A Mango-Shaped Space</i> 2003 book by Wendy Mass

A Mango-Shaped Space is a 2003 young adult novel by the American author Wendy Mass. A Mango-Shaped Space is Mass's fourth fiction novel. The book received the American Library Association Schneider Family Book Award in 2004. The novel has since been nominated for, and received, a number of other awards. The hand lettering on the cover is by Billy Kelly. The book is recommended for grades 5–8. A 7-hour long audiobook version, narrated by Danielle Ferland, has been produced.

<i>Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn</i>

Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn is the second novel by American author Paul Watkins. It was published in 1989 by Houghton Mifflin and shared the Encore Award the following year.

The Mysterious Benedict Society is a quartet of children's books by Trenton Lee Stewart chronicling the adventures of four children, initially gathered together by the eccentric Mr. Benedict. The first children's novels written by Stewart, each of the first three books were published annually from 2007 to 2009, with the fourth installment following a decade later. A prequel novel detailing the backstory of Nicholas Benedict was released in 2012.

<i>Sex on the Moon</i> 2011 book by Ben Mezrich

Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History is a 2011 book by Ben Mezrich, author of New York Times Best SellerBringing Down the House and of The Accidental Billionaires. It retells the theft and attempted sale of lunar samples plus a Martian meteorite from a vault at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center by a cooperative education student assisted by another co-op, an intern, plus an acquaintance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Spiegelman</span> American novelist

Peter Spiegelman is an American crime fiction author and former Wall Street executive. He is most known for his series of books following the cases of the Manhattan-based private eye, John March, winning a Shamus Award for the first novel in the series. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

<i>The Bluford Series</i> Series of young adult novels

The Bluford Series is a widely read collection of contemporary American young adult novels set in the fictional inner-city high school of Bluford High in Southern California. Bluford is named for Guion "Guy" Bluford, the first African-American astronaut. The series was created and published by Townsend Press and was co-distributed by Scholastic. As part of an effort to promote reading in underfunded school districts, Townsend Press originally made the Bluford Series available to schools for a dollar each. As of 2018, over 11 million Bluford Series novels were in print.

<i>Legacy</i> (Judd novel)

Set in 1970s London, Legacy is a spy novel by English author Alan Judd. Published in 2001 it continues the story of Charles Thoroughgood, first introduced in his debut novel, A Breed of Heroes, published 20 years earlier. British historian Peter Hennessy described it as 'one of the best spy novels ever'.

<i>The Midnight Zoo</i> 2010 novel by Sonya Hartnett

The Midnight Zoo is a 2010 novel by Sonya Hartnett. It was first published on 1 November 2010 in Australia and was then released in the United States a year later. It follows the story of two gypsy boys that find an abandoned zoo after fleeing a traditional celebration. The novella has gained critical praise for its "lyrical" prose and for the illustrations in the United States version, done by artist Andrea Offermann.

<i>Shopping</i> (novel)

Shopping, is the debut novel by British author Gavin Kramer, published in 1998 by Fourth Estate. It won the David Higham Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and was short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award.

The Giant's House is the debut novel of Elizabeth McCracken, first published in 1996. The novel was short-listed for the 1996 National Book Award for Fiction. The novel explores how Peggy Cort, a librarian and "old maid", falls in love with one of her patrons, the world's tallest Man, James Sweatt.

<i>The Marrow Thieves</i> 2017 novel by Cherie Dimaline

The Marrow Thieves is a young adult dystopian novel by Métis Canadian writer Cherie Dimaline, published on September 1, 2017, by Cormorant Books through its Dancing Cat Books imprint.

<i>Jack</i> (Robinson novel) Novel by Marilynne Robinson

Jack is a novel by Marilynne Robinson, published in September 2020.

<i>Whereabouts</i> (novel) Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri

Whereabouts is a 2018 novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. It is her third novel, her first since The Lowland (2013). It was originally written in Italian, and later translated into English by Lahiri herself.

<i>Timekeeper trilogy</i> Series of young adult novels by Tara Sim

The Timekeeper Trilogy is a series of young adult steampunk novels by Tara Sim. It is the author's debut trilogy. The series comprises Timekeeper (2016), Chainbreaker (2018), and Firestarter (2019).

References

  1. 1 2 "Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegelman". Kirkus Reviews . September 15, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  2. 1 2 Brunner, Rob (July 13, 2011). "Thick as Thieves review - Peter Spiegelman Review | Book Reviews and News". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  3. Nolan, Tom (August 13, 2011). "Book Review: Thick as Thieves". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  4. Tierney, Bruce (July 14, 2011). "Crime, creeps and the book of 2011". BookPage. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  5. Szewczyk, Elaine. "Best Fiction of 2011". Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved August 16, 2012.