Forty Thieves - Softcover

Praise for Forty Thieves

"Guns are ubiquitous in Thomas Perry's breathtaking Forty Thieves, a double-barreled Southern California thriller that moves almost faster than a speeding bullet."--Tom Dolan, Wall Street Journal

"With a rat-a-tat plot that's as violent as a video¬game, Perry follows two couples-one a pair of ex-LAPD officers and the other assassins-for¬ hire-who work opposite sides of the same case."--Entertainment Weekly
"Nick and Nora Charles they're not. But while Sid and Veronica Abel may be lacking in urbanity, these private investigators are no less brainy and far better marksmen. Appearing for the first time in Thomas Perry's new thriller, Forty Thieves, these former Los Angeles police detectives have been married for over 30 years and have children and grandchildren. That confers on them the wisdom of the ancients, along with the cloak of invisibility in a youth-obsessed society, which suits them just fine . . . The tips you learn in a Perry novel are priceless."--Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"This stand-alone caper smoothly mixes high-octane thrills with comic capering, as two married couples--one a PI team, the other a hit couple for hire--spar with one another . . . until they both find themselves in the crosshairs of a lethal gang of Russian jewel thieves. Along the way to a knockout finale . . . Perry offers a master class in narrative sleight of hand . . . . Like the work of the late, great Ross Thomas--the crime writer Perry most resembles--Perry's books, whether series or stand-alone, absolutely resist easy categorization, thoroughly melding character and plot, light and dark, and totally immersing the reader in the irresistible narrative."--Booklist (starred review)

"Forty Thieves is Thomas Perry at his best--equal parts exciting, ingenious and entertaining."--Deadly Pleasures

"Sardonic humor is rare in American mysteries. It is the kind of humor that creeps up on you and suddenly your reaction is a wry smile as you read the double-edged melodrama which abounds in Thomas Perry's work."--Washington Times

"Propulsive, darkly humorous . . . As the likable, series-worthy Abels struggle to survive at least long enough to solve [the] murder, Perry tosses in several hairpin plot twists that culminate in a satisfyingly surprising conclusion."--Publishers Weekly

"Sid and Ronnie, both formerly of the LAPD, are brainy, thorough, and resourceful . . . The would-be killers, Ed and Nicole Hoyt, are the kind of people Perry knows like the back of his hand: coldhearted, businesslike, and consummately successful . . . Entertaining and suspenseful."--Kirkus Reviews

"A really solid suspense novel. One that gives you plenty of action, intriguing characters, but most of all, some real chills down the spine . . . You'll read this until the wee hours."--Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Forty Thieves . . . is high-voltage Perry . . . In Perry's world you'll find no faces from Central Casting, and you'll hear no dialogue that rings flat or familiar. He brings his superb thriller to a close with a confrontation between his two foes that is as astonishing as it is satisfying."--Open Letters Monthly

From New York Times bestselling author Thomas Perry comes a whip-smart and lethally paced standalone novel, Forty Thieves.

Sid and Ronnie Abel are a husband-and-wife detective team, both ex-LAPD. Ed and Nicole Hoyt are assassins-for-hire living in the San Fernando Valley. Except for deadly aim with a handgun, the two couples have little in common?until both are hired to do damage control on the same murder case. The previous spring, a body was recovered from a storm sewer after two days of torrential rain. The corpse was identified as James Ballantine, a middle-aged African American who worked as a research scientist and was killed by two bullets to the back of the head. With the murder case turning cold, Ballantine’s former employers bring in the Abels to succeed where the police have failed, while the Hoyts’ mysterious contractors want to make sure that the facts about Ballantine’s death stay hidden. Dramatic car chases, illicit affairs, and a notorious ring of Eastern European diamond thieves all play into the plot as the book races toward its high-octane climax, and the Abels circle ever closer to the dangerous truth.