nikeg27's review against another edition
3.0
Decent book, honestly. The plot kept me interested, and I really wanted to know the reason behind the murders throughout the whole story. Elle was interesting, although hard to relate to. The only thing really detracting from the story was a lot of technical description in the last forty pages or so. I pretty much skimmed, if I’m being honest. It had a satisfying conclusion to both the plot and Elle’s character arc.
usbsticky's review against another edition
4.0
Spoilers below:
This is one of Thomas Perry's stand alone books. The protagonist is a female cat burglar. She burgles rich houses in LA. One day she goes into a house where 2 women and 1 man are shot dead in flagrante delicto. She removes a camera which has caught her entering the room, removes the portion of the vid with her and returns it. After that she finds that she is being tracked by an unknown organization and marked for death. At this point the story becomes like that of The Butcher Boy where she tries to avoid getting killed for most of the middle of the book.
She eventually tracks down the organization that's trying to kill her and discovers that it's a security company gone rogue and killed the 3 clients and is trying to kill her to cover its tracks.
The writing in many ways is similar to other Perry books. For example the protagonist is almost super-human and able to get away with many things, like getting in and out any house without any difficulty, avoiding all sorts of electronic and manual surveillance. Pretty much like gaming on easy level. Also in this book, some of her back story is thrown in. I would say the back story is wasted unless it turns into a series because it doesn't have anything to do with the story.
But overall I like this book because it's easy to read and follow and I actually like the protagonist on easy level. However the plot doesn't seem to be too well thought out or planned, it has a extemporaneous feel to it.
This is one of Thomas Perry's stand alone books. The protagonist is a female cat burglar. She burgles rich houses in LA. One day she goes into a house where 2 women and 1 man are shot dead in flagrante delicto. She removes a camera which has caught her entering the room, removes the portion of the vid with her and returns it. After that she finds that she is being tracked by an unknown organization and marked for death. At this point the story becomes like that of The Butcher Boy where she tries to avoid getting killed for most of the middle of the book.
She eventually tracks down the organization that's trying to kill her and discovers that it's a security company gone rogue and killed the 3 clients and is trying to kill her to cover its tracks.
The writing in many ways is similar to other Perry books. For example the protagonist is almost super-human and able to get away with many things, like getting in and out any house without any difficulty, avoiding all sorts of electronic and manual surveillance. Pretty much like gaming on easy level. Also in this book, some of her back story is thrown in. I would say the back story is wasted unless it turns into a series because it doesn't have anything to do with the story.
But overall I like this book because it's easy to read and follow and I actually like the protagonist on easy level. However the plot doesn't seem to be too well thought out or planned, it has a extemporaneous feel to it.
mandylovestoread's review against another edition
3.0
The Burglar by Thomas Perry was a fast read for me and in the beginning I was hooked. Sadly it did not continue for the whole book. I was intrigued by the premise of a young female burglar in LA but felt that it went slightly off in the middle and end. The ending was so full of art jargon that I lost interest quickly. Also Elle came across as very cold which was disappointing.
Elle is a young woman with an unlikely profession... she stakes out the rich and famous homes in LA and breaks in. She has made a good living out of this until one night she breaks in and finds 3 dead bodies, and a video camera running. Now she is being watched and followed.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased
Elle is a young woman with an unlikely profession... she stakes out the rich and famous homes in LA and breaks in. She has made a good living out of this until one night she breaks in and finds 3 dead bodies, and a video camera running. Now she is being watched and followed.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased
cassies_books_reviews's review against another edition
4.0
This was my first Thomas Perry book but I’m now sure it will not be my last! Elle is a twenty year old woman who has been taught at a young age she needs to be able to take care of herself. She is a cat burglar and she scouts potential homes by running in the neighborhoods of the wealthy and looks for homes where it’s obvious their not home or have pets. One evening she breaks into a home and while looking for jewelry and money she stumbles into the master suite and finds three dead bodies in bed with a camera running. Before escaping the home she snatches the camera to see if she was spotted on it. While going through the camera she discovers that yes the camera shows the murder happening but not the murderer. She erases herself from the film and makes a few copies for herself she returns the camera for the police to use. Soon after this she begins to hear of three people looking for her at some of her usual hangouts. She’s told they seem like cops. She wants nothing to do with them and starts hiding out, but soon people that are close to her end up dead , she now has to find out who the murders are and what led up to the crime she had stumbled on that started all of this , or she will never stop looking over her shoulder. This book was so different with having the main character a criminal herself. I really enjoyed this book and felt like I was sneaking into people’s homes with Elle. I give this four stars and it was a quick read for me! I want to say thank you to netgalley and grove Atlantic publishing as well!
javablue's review against another edition
2.0
Not the kind of book I normally read, and I found myself trying to finish it just so I could get on to other things. Sort of a mystery that I didn't really care to find the answer to. All in first-person thought with very little dialog, and while you're in her head the whole time, you never really feel connected to her in any way. Another protagonist expert-at-everything who is never caught even in the most unrealistic scenarios.
cynicalnovas's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
readinggrrl's review against another edition
3.0
When you are a burglar you never know what you are walking into but Elle is good at what she does. Unfortunately this time Elle walks into a scene that she is likely not to forget. Three people in the bed all dead of a gunshot to the head and a video camera running filming it all.
The beginning of this book kept me very interested, then as Elle decides to play detective things go a little stale. She starts making mistakes, and her abilities take on a superhero quality that didn't really seem to fit. The ending just left me a bit cold it was so abrupt.
There are definitely pieces of this book that were really good and others that just jumped the shark so hard it was almost hard to keep reading. The death of someone Elle knows barely makes a blip on her emotional radar for more that a few days. I understand needing to be detached as a burglar but this was a bit much. There were other things like this that left me unable to give this book a better rating.
Overall this is a brain candy thriller that isn't that sweet and doesn't last that long.
The beginning of this book kept me very interested, then as Elle decides to play detective things go a little stale. She starts making mistakes, and her abilities take on a superhero quality that didn't really seem to fit. The ending just left me a bit cold it was so abrupt.
There are definitely pieces of this book that were really good and others that just jumped the shark so hard it was almost hard to keep reading. The death of someone Elle knows barely makes a blip on her emotional radar for more that a few days. I understand needing to be detached as a burglar but this was a bit much. There were other things like this that left me unable to give this book a better rating.
Overall this is a brain candy thriller that isn't that sweet and doesn't last that long.