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Lupin Trailer

Yes, more stuff about super-thieves, less about serial killers!

Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkjian

It's been a while since I've had the chance to read a book, and I was excited to read this one. About the Gardner Museum at heist in 1990, this books has a lot of interesting bits of the Boston underworld in it, but the whole book fell flat. Probably because Kurkjian is used to writing newspaper articles where information is repeated in order to update the reader, in his book he forgets that the reader just finished the previous chapters. So often are parts of the story repeated, sometimes using the same paragraph and just copying and pasting it in the new chapter. There is also a lot of stuff about different Boston mobsters that just doesn't really seem necessary. Sure they pulled off this bank heist, but I don't need the details of it, just why they went to jail toys time. Kurkjian also jumps all over the place, at one point he's in 1980s, then 2000s, back to 1990s, and all over. It would help if it was all for the same storyline, but half the time he was explaining someone else's story before jumping back to his main point. It's all disappointing too because the heist is still unsolved to this day, so after reading about all these possible criminals and FBI incompetence, you still don't know who actually did it or where the art work is now. I really wanted to like this book as I have gone to the museum when I was younger and have seen the great artworks that are there, but his jumpy writing really prevented me from doing that. He's a good writer, it is entertaining in short amounts, but trying to sit down and read this all at once proved difficult. Read it if you don't know about the heist or would like some personal stories by Boston mobsters in the 80s, but be prepared for repetition.

#Master Thieves #Stephen Kurkjian #non fiction #true crime #Gardner Museum #art heist