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    The Burglar
    The Burglar
    The Burglar
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Burglar

    Written by Thomas Perry

    Narrated by Christina Delaine

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the New York Times bestselling author Thomas Perry, "who can be depended upon to deliver high-voltage shocks" (Stephen King), comes a new thriller about an unlikely burglar-a young woman in her twenties-who realizes she must solve a string of murders, or else become the next victim

    Elle Stowell is a young woman with an unconventional profession: burglary. But Elle is no petty thief-with just the right combination of smarts, looks, and skills, she can easily stroll through ritzy Bel Air neighborhoods and pick out the perfect home for plucking the most valuable items. This is how Elle has always gotten by-she is good at it, and she thrives on the thrill. But after stumbling upon a grisly triple homicide while stealing from the home of a wealthy art dealer, Elle discovers that she is no longer the only one sneaking around. Somebody is searching for her.

    As Elle realizes that her knowledge of the high-profile murder has made her a target, she races to solve the case before becoming the next casualty, using her breaking-and-entering skills to uncover the truth about exactly who the victims were and why someone might have wanted them dead. With high-stakes action and shocking revelations, The Burglar will keep listeners on the edge of their seats as they barrel towards the heart-racing conclusion.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJan 8, 2019
    ISBN9781684418381
    Author

    Thomas Perry

    Thomas Perry is the New York Times bestselling author of nearly thirty novels, including the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, The Old Man, and The Butcher's Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California. Follow Thomas on Facebook at @ThomasPerryAuthor.

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    Reviews for The Burglar

    3.5/5

    117 ratings21 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This was a difficult book for me. The plot forced me to accept things that were difficult leaps. I enjoyed, Elle, the main character, an enterprising burglar who gets caught up in a messy multiple murder. However, I wasn't ready to go with her on some of her travels as she unraveled the solution to the murders. Perry always writes books with solid dialog and well-defined characters. The story here just didn't capture me the way his books have in the past.
    • 3/5
      Not his best. Seven more words required to post this.
    • 2/5
      I so strongly disliked the main character that I kept hoping she would be caught. I really wanted to like this book, but found myself powering through it.
    • 3/5
      "The Burglar," a thriller by the prolific Thomas Perry, is the story of twenty-four-old Elle Stowell, a petite, athletic, and careful thief. Since her relatives abandoned her when she was fourteen, she has chosen to make a living by sneaking into the homes of wealthy Californians and stealing their cash, jewelry, and weapons. She is small (five-foot-one and one hundred and five pounds), alert, fit, calm, and good with her hands. She can squeeze into small spaces with ease, climb gracefully (she was once proficient in gymnastics), has studied construction and electronics, and knows how to pick locks, spot surveillance cameras, and disable alarms. To stay in shape, Elle runs, swims, lifts weights, and does pull-ups. Occasionally, she will take a vacation, but she is careful to live within her means.

      Even the savviest criminal risks getting arrested or killed. After she enters the house of an art connoisseur, Elle is shocked to find three homicide victims. Although she had nothing to do with this triple murder, she soon finds herself in the crosshairs of unidentified individuals who want her dead. She decides to investigate the matter, find the perpetrators herself, and ascertain their motive. Thomas Perry writes crisp and witty dialogue, and his understated prose is clear, unadorned, and briskly-paced. We cannot help but root for this diminutive but formidable heroine, in spite of her larcenous ways, since she is smart, generally good-hearted, and courageous. There is a particularly memorable scene in which someone Elle trusts catches her off-guard. This usually unflappable woman suddenly faces a foe with lethal intentions who is stronger, taller, and more experienced in hand-to-hand combat.

      "The Burglar," unfortunately, is too implaubible to earn an enthusiastic recommendation. The police are, for unexplained reasons, missing in action while Elle does their job for them. In addition, Elle's virtuosity at everything she undertakes requires a huge suspension of disbelief. Her skill set includes: entering and exiting a house undetected; knowing how and where to search for the things she wants; understanding human nature as well as a PhD in psychology; and unraveling the details of a far-fetched scheme that has led to a great deal of bloodshed. The villains are one-dimensional and uninteresting thugs, and the conclusion is flat and anticlimactic. Although "The Burglar" has humorous passages and, initially, many unanswered questions that pique our curiosity, it lacks the visceral impact of Perry's more impressive works of fiction.
    • 4/5
      Vintage Perry. A young woman tries to stay a step beyond the bad guys who wish her harm.
    • 3/5
      I do love a good Thomas Perry story, and this is no exception. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      There is just something so compelling about any Thomas Perry story. One word just takes you to the other til you get to the end. This one was particularly good. A female burglar finds a murder scene and works to unravel it. Towards the end, the story took some weird/not practical turns but by then I was sucked in way too far to care.
    • 1/5
      Truthfully, I would have stopped reading this, but by the time I had made that decision, I was over halfway done. It’s a quick read. But a slow plot, with a main character that bored me. Lots of long descriptions of her breaking into place and slowly, very, very, slowly, going through the place. So slowly. And the 'scheme' that people were killed for? So very, very lame. Now that I finished the book, I'm sorry that I didn't stop when I should have. Boo.
    • 4/5
      Good character and alot of great detail.
    • 3/5
      BOTTOM-LINE:Love Perry but this is not his best work.PLOT OR PREMISE:Elle is an old-fashioned cat burglar with updated methods to tell her when houses with valuables are likely to be sitting empty. And she happily liberates them, feeling no remorse because the people are rich and she mainly takes things that are insured. Cash, jewels, guns. Which is all fun and games until she walks into the master bedroom at an empty house and finds three dead people sharing a bed after sharing each other..WHAT I LIKED:The initial premise is strong, and watching her case, enter and rob houses is exciting. The initial twist is that the murders were accidentally recorded on a nearby camera, and Elle has to steal it to wipe the memory of her entrance. Her sense of ethics requires her to edit the footage to remove herself and then return the camera before the police find the bodies. But somehow the killers are looking for her, they know she was there and maybe saw too much..WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:Elle is supposed to be young, hip, and in the criminal underworld…and then spends more than half the book thinking the rough crowd in suits following her are probably cops, even after it is clear there is only one group looking for her, not two, and somebody killed her friend and the friend's boyfriend. Everything about them screams mercenaries / ex-military even down to their office location, but nope, she keeps thinking they might be cops. Right up until she sees them shoot two people. A little slow on the uptake. In the middle of the "case", a hit man comes after her, but rather than kill her as he is supposed to do, he plays with her for days trying to get her alone. Which he could have done by force ANY day and moved on. Whatever. She then turns into super sleuth to ferret out who they are, document all the evidence she'll need to turn over to the police (i.e., days of surveillance and note-taking). At the end, the entire motive for everything is revealed in page after page of exposition, just dumped on the page by the bad guy which she conveniently records. And then it ends with only the barest of explanations of what happens to people, and her looking for work after getting out of the burglary game. Like maybe being a private investigator in a sequel, perhaps? While dating a new boyfriend she didn't even really like. .DISCLOSURE:I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow him on social media.
    • 5/5
      A rather fun and quick read with a lot of twists and turns, The Burglar takes a different view by following a crime by another criminal. Being knowledgeable of the other side of crime, Elle investigates a murder showing what she would do differently than law enforcement. I rather enjoyed this part of the story. She's never safe throughout the story...always looking over her shoulder. The only thing I will say i would change are her thoughts of the past or side stories. Would rather see these as separate chapters. Instead, in some cases, the past stories blend so much into the present that it's difficult to discern one from the other until a paragraph or 2 later. Other than that, i loved the story.
    • 4/5
      I really liked the storyline and the action was exciting. I think Thomas Perry is a good story teller and weaves intricate plots. Elle is a twenty something girl who has been fending for herself since her mid-teens. She supports herself by burgaling houses of the wealthy and pawning the goods. She seems to be an expert in everything and even though she gets into dangerous predicaments she is able to miraculously escape without too much difficulty. She is in the middle of robbing a house when she stumbes upon a triple homicide and becomes a target. She must work to solve the case before she becomes a victim herself. Although I liked the story, I had problems with the writing style. Mr. Perry provides lots of superfluous information, like the brand type and ammo type of guns she finds in her robberies and the streets she drives on. These details are not necessary to the story. The characters are interesting but they lack any warmth or humanity. The dialogue is stilted and the characters are just not that likeable. I could give a list of incongruities in the story but will not so as to avoid spoilers. Overall, I liked the story but it could be improved by paring down the details, making the dialogue more natural and by adding some more warmth and personality to the characters. I give this story 3.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
    • 2/5
      I love Thomas Perry. I was looking forward to this book for months. It was really disappointing.It took half the book for Elle (The Burglar) to realize she was a target because she had discovered a triple murder. Her moves went from brilliant to amateurish to childish and back. I found the writing pedantic and slow.Many Thomas Perry books were stay up all night, I have to finish this. This one was, I've struggled with this for a week. It's time to stop.
    • 5/5
      The Burglar by Thomas Perry introduces the reader to Elle Stowell, a twenty-something female burglar who jogs on the streets of high-end neighborhoods in Los Angeles, while casing for possible targets. She travels light before and after her break-ins: she steals cash and jewelry that can easily be sold for a percentage of the value. While breaking into a gallery owner's mansion, Elle stumbles upon three dead bodies. Who are they and why were they all shot? She soon realizes that someone is looking for her and that it has to do with the murders. She does not know if they are friend or foe. Why is she being followed? Elle will need all of her burglary skills to get to the bottom of this mystery and to save herself. This novel excels at the cat-and-mouse thriller genre. The tension builds throughout and this is a most enjoyable read. Thomas Perry never disappoints. Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Single POV not the best view for Perry's Hunt-and-Evade styleReview of the Audible Audio edition narrated by Christina Delaine2.5 rounded up to 3.0I'm certain that I've raved about Thomas Perry's mastery of the "chase & hide"/"hunt & evade" suspense thriller in more than several reviews. Much of this mastery has been through the back and forth effect of him pivoting from those being chased to those doing the chasing and building the tension by manipulating the reader's expectations through the different points of view."The Burglar" takes a different route and tells the entire story from sneak burglar Elle Stowell's point-of-view only. This does serve to build up suspense as you don't know what the villains are up to or even why they are doing it for the larger part of the book. It does then require a manipulation to have that all explained in the end in a way that Elle Stowell can hear it. All of this becomes just a bit too unbelievable though. There are still some exciting set-pieces throughout the book but it just didn't quite satisfy in the way that I have come to expect with Thomas Perry. I am happy that he sets himself new challenges though in order to keep his material fresh.I enjoyed Christina Delaine's audiobook narration which was well voiced in all the character roles.
    • 4/5
      Elle Stowell is young, pretty, and just what you’d expect to see jogging through the upper-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles. This is part of what makes her such a good thief in The Burglar by Thomas Perry. While she is robbing the home of a wealthy financial services executive, she discovers him naked and dead in his bedroom. Next to him are two wealthy women, neither his wife, all of them shot through the head. To top it all off, she finds a running digital camera which has recorded everything, from seduction to sex to murder, as well as Elle’s entrance.Now Elle has a dilemma on her hands She intends to remove her own image from the recording and send it to the police. Elle soon discovers that either the murderers or the cops know about her and she makes plans to leave town. Before that can happen, she discovers that the killers are after her. Now leaving town and waiting for the police to solve the crime isn’t an option. Elle is going to have to solve it herself if she wants to keep breathing.Thomas Perry has written an exciting mystery/thriller with a compelling character in Elle Stowell. The early part of the book, as Elle describes in detail her methods of casing targets, breaking into them and selling the proceeds is illuminating. Her brushes with danger and a rising body count as the killers see Elle as a loose end to tie up add to the thrills. This momentum carries the book through about two-thirds of the story. The final act, as Elle becomes the pursuer instead of the pursued lacks some of the punch of the early part of the story but still carries enough thrills to make for a satisfying read.I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.
    • 2/5
      I am a big fan of Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield mysteries in which Jane helps people disappear. Reading passages in those books makes readers feel as though they're reading a textbook on how to leave your old life behind and start all over again. You get that same textbook feeling reading The Burglar, but the reading enjoyment was much lower for me. The repetition is deadly in this book. We are told over and over how pretty Elle is. How smart she is. How good she is at being a burglar. We are told over and over of her wardrobe changes and her rental car trade-ins. Over and over, world without end... This might have worked-- I might not have noticed all the repetition-- if Elle's voice hadn't been so dispassionate. As if everything she says must be taken as fact and it's useless to argue with her because she could care less what you think.But I do insist on arguing with her. She may be pretty, and she may know how to trade in rental cars and choose just the right outfit for each occasion, but she's not nearly as smart as she likes to think she is. She knows someone is following her, someone who committed a triple homicide. What does she do? Go to a friend's house to stay. In another instance-- having even more proof that she's being followed-- she attends a funeral and is surprised by what happens there. There are even more examples of Elle being Too Stupid To Live, but there's no need to list them all. Seasoned crime fiction readers will know what I mean. This character was driving me insane.The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I insisted on knowing what was going on, why it was going on, and how it would all be wrapped up. That was interesting, and it helped that the point of view at the end switched from the smug, flat-voiced Elle. My ear needed a rest from her, and the different point of view helps readers see how everything fit together.At the end of The Burglar, I was happy to know how everything turned out and even more thrilled in the knowledge that I'd never have to spend any more time with Elle Stowell. If you've wanted to read Thomas Perry-- and you should-- it's better to stick to a standalone like The Butcher's Boy or his Jane Whitefield series. This is not one of his better books.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book from the start. I thought the characters were understandable and real. The story line was good from the beginning and kept getting better! This held true all through the book. You can read the premise of the book on the synopsis, but there are things that will keep you reading beyond just what is said there. The writing is great, the book is full of adventure, and there will be a character or two you will relate to. it was, for me, a good old-fashioned mystery, with all the excellent writing skill that entails.Loved the ending. If you love a mystery or a well-written book, read this. You will enjoy it also.I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, so thank you to them, the publisher and the writer!
    • 5/5
      Elle Stowell is a burglar. And she’s very good at it. She loves it. Nothing small-time for her. She targets only high-dollar neighborhoods, the homes of the very wealthy and Hollywood elite. Her criminal life is good, all is going according to plan, right up until it isn’t. While pilfering from the home of a well-known art dealer, she comes face to face with a triple murder, a fact that puts a target on her back. But who is after her? Why were the three victims killed? These are questions Elle must answer before she becomes the next victim. To do so, she employs all her stealthy skills, knowing she must find the killer before he finds her. A great story, well-written, and filled with twists and turns. And a protagonist readers will love. Highly recommended.DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly thriller series
    • 5/5
      Elle Stowell, a twenty-something young woman who makes her living as a burglar, stumbles upon a triple murder and becomes the unidentified killer’s next target. While Elle’s chosen career may be a bit off-putting for readers in the beginning, this smart, clever young woman is certain to change readers’ minds as, in order to find justice for the murdered and save her own life, she embarks on a compelling mission to identify the killer. Her backstory, woven into the narrative, provides depth and helps readers understand and connect with the character. Interesting characters, a smart, well-developed plot, unexpected reveals, and enough twists and turns in this cat-and-mouse adventure to keep the suspense ratcheted up, readers will find it difficult to set this book aside before reaching its perfect ending.Highly recommended.I received a free copy of this eBook from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley #TheBurglar #NetGalley
    • 4/5
      I have always been a fan of Perry's work and his latest did not disappoint me. If you want a well-crafted thriller, Perry is your author. The plot did have me wondering where I'd seen/read it before. It seems quite standard: the burglar who stumbles on a murder and then becomes prey for the murderer. Or so it would seem.I'll give this one 3.5 stars rounded up to 4, because there was something that felt a bit off about this book. Perhaps it was the convoluted plot involving a sophisticated art scam, or perhaps it was the improbable way Elle manages to plant devices and discover information, or perhaps she's just the luckiest creature around. Still, Perry is a master at driving the story and the reader's interest along.My thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the advance copy in return for my honest opinion.