My own heist, THE MILANESE STARS is out. To celebrate the release, I’ve compiled the best books on heists that have ever been written.
So you love heists and robberies.?I read a ton of books before I started writing THE MILANESE STARS. So here are the some of the best books for people who love heists.
Personally, I’m a big fan of the Italian Job and the Inside Man. Each of these books feature a heist of jewels, cash and gold. Some of them have a happy ending, some don’t. But they’re all super interesting to read.
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The Lies of Locke Lamora
They say that the Thorn of Camorr can beat anyone in a fight. Additionally, they say he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. They say he’s part man, part myth, and mostly street-corner rumor. And they are wrong on every count. Scott Lynch weaves a splendid tale of literary crime fiction.
THE HOT ROCK
The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake introduces John Archibald Dortmunder, the thief whose capers never quite come off, as he and his convict friends plot to steal the fabulous Balaboma Emerald.
Fresh out of prison, Dortmunder plans a heist that could mean war.
THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT
In the vastness of space, the crimes just get bigger and Slippery Jim diGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, is the biggest criminal of them all. He can con humans, aliens and any number of robots time after time.
Jim is so slippery that all the inter-galactic cops can do is make him one of their own.
19 PURCHASE STREET
In Gerald A. Browne’s spellbinding New York Times bestseller, a man bent on vengeance infiltrates a cabal of blue-blooded bankers that have taken over the Mafia.
From New York to Paris to Zurich, Gainer risks his life to become the winner who takes all. But who is really conning whom?
THE ANDERSON TAPES
The explosive Edgar Award–winning debut novel—told entirely through surveillance recordings, eyewitness reports, and other “official” documents—by New York Times bestselling author Lawrence Sanders.
The New York Police Department has hatched a plot of its own—but even its task force may not be enough to stop such a cunningly planned robbery
THE PRINCE OF THIEVES
From the author of The Strain comes a tense, psychologically gripping, Hammet award-winning thriller. Four masked men—thieves, rivals, and friends from the tough streets of of Charlestown—take on a Boston bank at gunpoint.
Racing to an explosive climax, Prince of Thieves is a brash tale of robbery in all its forms—and an unforgettable odyssey of crime, love, ambition, and dreams.
THE FRIENDS OF Eddie Coyle
The classic novel from “America’s best crime novelist” (Time), with a new introduction by Dennis Lehane. George V. Higgins’s seminal crime novel is a down-and-dirty tale of thieves, mobsters, and cops on the mean streets of Boston.
Told almost entirely in crackling dialogue by a vivid cast of lowlifes and detectives, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of the greatest crime novels ever written.
The Wheelman
Meet Lennon, a mute Irish getaway driver who has fallen in with the wrong heist team on the wrong day at the wrong bank. Betrayed, his money stolen and his battered carcass left for dead, Lennon is on a one-way mission to find out who is responsible—and to get back his loot.
One thing’s for sure: This cast of characters wakes up in a much different world by novel’s end—if they wake up at all, in Duane Swierczynski’s The Wheelman.
Drive
Drive, by James Sallis is set mostly in Arizona and LA. The story is about a guy who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night.
In classic noir fashion, he is double-crossed and, though before he has never participated in the violence (‘I drive. That’s all.’), he goes after the ones who double-crossed and tried to kill him.
Clean Break
Originally published in 1955, this is a classic noir novel from the prolific pulp writer, Lionel White.
Johnny Clay, is fresh out of prison with what he believes to be a foolproof plan for a robbery that will net a huge score. Clay plans to hit a horse racing track on the day of a big race and grab the day’s proceeds just before they would be loaded into
Asphalt Jungle
A gripping tale of the planning and execution of a jewelry store heist in a dark and corrupt Midwestern metropolis by W R Burnett. Set amid a seedy urban wasteland of crooks, killers and con-artists, the members of the gang are steadily undone by their personal obsessions (teenage girls and mistresses, friendships and blood ties), double-crossing and fate.
The Taking Of Pelham 123
Four men take a New York City subway train hostage—along with all of its passengers. Their demands are simple: deliver $1 million, or the men will start killing hostages. Fast-paced and intensely psychological, this novel tells the story from the point of view of each of the hijackers—revealing each man’s motivations, desperations, and fatal flaws.
Made into a blockbuster movie in 1974 starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, and remade in 2009 with Denzel Washington and John Travolta, this novel will have you on the edge of your seat until the last page.
Two-Way Split
Edinburgh, dead of winter.
Robin Greaves is an armed robber whose professionalism is put to the test when he discovers his wife has been sleeping with a fellow gang member. Robin plans the ultimate revenge, but things go from bad to worse when the gang bungles a post office robbery, leaving carnage in their wake.
Two-Way Split is a lean and muscular crime thriller with some hard-hitting violence and a seriously twisted dark side. Winner of the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger award.
The Getaway
Doc McCoy knows everything there is to know about pulling off the perfect bank job. But there are some things he has forgotten–such as a partner who is not only treacherous but
insane and a wife who is still an amateur.
Worst of all, McCoy has forgotten that when the crime is big and bloody enough, there is no such thing as a clean getaway.
Void Moon
A brilliant, high-tension thriller set in the glittery, surreal worlds of Las Vegas casinos, from the bestselling author of THE LINCOLN LAWYER.
A young woman finds herself caught up in a heist which may cost her the one thing she values more than her life..
Thick As Thieves
Carr–ex-CIA–is the reluctant leader of an elite crew planning a robbery of such extraordinary proportions that it will leave them set for life.
His cohorts are seasoned pros, but they’re wound drum-tight–months before, the man who brought them together was killed in what Carr suspects was a setup.
A Five-Year Plan
When FBI agent Kate Fury, aboard a yacht ferrying cocaine from Columbia to Europe, meets Dave Delano, a hijacker fresh from prison, the result is an unlikely alliance against the Mafia and an even more unlikely romance. 75,000 first printing.
The Hunter
You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise.
In The Hunter, the first volume in the series, Parker roars into New York City, seeking revenge on the woman who betrayed him and on the man who took his money, stealing and scamming his way to redemption.
The Heist
Gabriel Allon, master art restorer and assassin, returns in a spellbinding new thriller from No.1 bestselling author Daniel Silva. Gabriel Allon – art restorer and legendary spy – is in Venice when he receives an urgent call from the Italian police. The art dealer Justin Isherwood has stumbled upon a chilling murder scene, and is being held as a suspect.
His mission takes him on exhilarating hunt from Marseilles and Corsica, to Paris and Geneva, and, finally, to a private bank in Austria, where a dangerous man stands guard over the ill-gotten wealth of one of the world’s most brutal dictators…
The Lock Artist
“I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me.
But you can call me Mike.”
The Lock Artist is the winner of the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
Ghostman
FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR AWARD—BEST FIRST NOVEL. In a daring operation, two crooks-for-hire rob an Atlantic City casino. But their heist goes horribly wrong, and only one of them makes it out alive. Now he’s on the run with half a million dollars vacuum-packed into a bundle the size of a briefcase. Little does he know it’s rigged with explosives.
Almost immediately, an expert fixer named Jack is in cross-country pursuit. With less than foty-eight hours to recover the money, clean up the mess, and—for god’s sake—try not to botch the job like he did last time….
Six of Crows
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don’t kill each other first.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo returns to the breathtaking world of the Grishaverse in this unforgettable tale about the opportunity―and the adventure―of a lifetime.
Enter the Grishaverse with the #1 New York Times–bestselling Six of Crows.
THE HEIST SOCIETY
For as long as she can remember, Katarina has been a part of the family business-thieving. When Kat tries to leave “the life” for a normal life, her old friend Hale conspires to bring her back into the fold.
Why? A mobster’s art collection has been stolen, and Kat’s father is the only suspect. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.
The Palace Job
Loch is seeking revenge. It would help if she wasn’t in jail.
The plan: to steal a priceless elven manuscript that once belonged to her family, but now is in the hands of the most powerful man in the Republic. To do so Loch, must assemble a crack team of magical misfits that includes a cynical illusionist, a shapeshifting unicorn, a repentant death priestess, a talking magical warhammer, & a lad with seemingly no skills to help her break into the floating fortress of Heaven’s Spire & the vault—all while eluding the unrelenting pursuit of Justicar Pyvic.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Everything Box
A thief named Coop—a specialist in purloining magic objects—steals and delivers a small box to the mysterious client who engaged his services. Coop doesn’t know that his latest job could be the end of him—and the rest of the world. Suddenly he finds himself in the company of The Department of Peculiar Science, a fearsome enforcement agency that polices the odd and strange. The box isn’t just a supernatural heirloom with quaint powers, they tell him.
It’s a doomsday device. They think . . .
And suddenly, everyone is out to get it
COIN HEIST
The last place you’d expect to find a team of criminals is at a prestigious Philadelphia prep school. But on a class trip to the U.S. Mint – which prints a million new coins every 30 minutes – an overlooked security flaw becomes far too tempting for a small group of students to ignore.
Elisa Ludwig’s COIN HEIST is a fun, suspenseful and compelling thriller, told from the revolving perspectives of four teens, each with their own motive for committing a crime that will change all of their lives – if they can pull it off.
THE MILANESE STARS
The heist of the decade and yet, no one would have guessed… it was her.
The Milanese stars are missing from the famous Buccatino boutique. When American insurance investigator, Samuel Keane is called in to liaise with the polizia, he finds the whole heist odd.
Samuel is anxious to solve the case and partners with local café owner, Vita, who has a very good vantage point to watch Buccatino. What will he do when he learns the heist of the decade isn’t about stealing pink diamonds… it’s about settling the score
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Do you have any other Heist Books that you love? Let me know. 💎💎💎