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Settings & Atmosphere - Fiction, Motivations - Fiction, Crimes - Fiction
Among Thieves by David Hosp β€” book cover

Among Thieves

by David Hosp
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Overview

Inspired by the true story of the biggest art theft of the twentieth century, bestselling author David Hosp returns with his latest blockbuster thriller featuring attorney Scott Finn.

AMONG THIEVES

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers entered Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the guards, and escaped with 500 million dollars' worth of paintings. The heist provoked a massive search for both the thieves and the lost masterpieces. But the paintings never surfaced and the mystery remained unsolved. Now, almost twenty years later, the case threatens to break wide open.

When attorney Scott Finn agrees to help an old friend from Southie, Devon Malley, he has no idea of the trouble he is bringing upon himself. Members of Boston's criminal underworld start turning up dead, and the M.O. of the attacks suggests the involvement of someone trained by the IRA. But when Finn learns of Malley's role in the heist, he's quickly drawn into the crossfire, and into the renewed hunt for the missing artwork . . . A hunt that may cost Finn and his colleagues their lives.

Synopsis

Inspired by the true story of the biggest art theft of the twentieth century, bestselling author David Hosp returns with his latest blockbuster thriller featuring attorney Scott Finn.

AMONG THIEVES

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers entered Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the guards, and escaped with 500 million dollars' worth of paintings. The heist provoked a massive search for both the thieves and the lost masterpieces. But the paintings never surfaced and the mystery remained unsolved. Now, almost twenty years later, the case threatens to break wide open.

When attorney Scott Finn agrees to help an old friend from Southie, Devon Malley, he has no idea of the trouble he is bringing upon himself. Members of Boston's criminal underworld start turning up dead, and the M.O. of the attacks suggests the involvement of someone trained by the IRA. But when Finn learns of Malley's role in the heist, he's quickly drawn into the crossfire, and into the renewed hunt for the missing artwork . . . A hunt that may cost Finn and his colleagues their lives.

Library Journal

In Hosp's third thriller featuring attorney Scott Finn (after Innocence), Devon Malley, a small-time thief caught red-handed stealing high-end women's underwear, asks for Finn's help not only with the charges against him but also with his daughter, who's on her own now that he's in jail. Finn reluctantly agrees to help on both counts but realizes that something bigger is going on when the two contacts Malley sends him to for information that might help Malley make a deal with the cops turn up dead. Signs indicate that there is IRA involvement in the murders. Twenty years ago, when $300 million worth of art was stolen from a Boston museum, there were rumours that the IRA was responsible. Now it appears that someone is back looking for the art and that both Malley and Finn and his associates are directly in the killer's line of fire. VERDICT Thriller readers won't be disappointed with the plot twists and surprise ending here, and Scott Finn fans will cheer his return.—Lisa Hanson O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg

About the Author, David Hosp

David Hosp is a Boston attorney. He received his B.A. from DartmouthCollege and his J.D. from GeorgeWashingtonUniversity. He lives with his wife, son, and daughter south of the city.

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Editorials

Library Journal

In Hosp's third thriller featuring attorney Scott Finn (after Innocence), Devon Malley, a small-time thief caught red-handed stealing high-end women's underwear, asks for Finn's help not only with the charges against him but also with his daughter, who's on her own now that he's in jail. Finn reluctantly agrees to help on both counts but realizes that something bigger is going on when the two contacts Malley sends him to for information that might help Malley make a deal with the cops turn up dead. Signs indicate that there is IRA involvement in the murders. Twenty years ago, when $300 million worth of art was stolen from a Boston museum, there were rumours that the IRA was responsible. Now it appears that someone is back looking for the art and that both Malley and Finn and his associates are directly in the killer's line of fire. VERDICT Thriller readers won't be disappointed with the plot twists and surprise ending here, and Scott Finn fans will cheer his return.β€”Lisa Hanson O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg

Kirkus Reviews

The still-unsolved 1990 robbery of the Gardner Museum gets a fictional investigation in a grittily realistic novel from Hosp (Innocence, 2007, etc.). Street kid turned lawyer Scott Finn doesn't care about artwork or the art of stealing it; he just wants to get enough information about who ratted out a supposedly failsafe insurance scam so he can plea-bargain his client, petty career criminal Devon Malley, out of the penalties usually involved in getting caught in a Newberry Street emporium at midnight with a half-million-dollar armful of designer clothes. Oh, and the attorney also finds himself saddled with a house guest: Devon's tough 14-year-old daughter Sally. Finn's partners, petite recent law-school grad Lissa and hulking former cop Koz, think he's crazy to take on the girl. Finn agrees-except that he remembers when he was a hungry, unwanted kid with nowhere to go. Reasoning it's only for a short time, he minds Sally, but pretty soon everyone's minding him, including a pair of homicidal IRA killers, a couple of detectives, who can't decide whether or not they hate each other, and some federal types who want to solve the art crime of the century. (It turns out Devon was involved.) Hosp also weaves fugitive mobster Whitey Bulger into his fictional tale of a crook in over his head and a lawyer who wants to give a kid a break, but none of the real-life elements make the thin plot any more plausible. The author obviously knows the criminal-justice system, and he flexes that knowledge in passages that merely pad the story line. Hosp has a good eye for character, however, and creates some promising ones that lead to an unusual detective pairing and an unconventional love story. In the end,it's the people, not the plot, who redeem the book. Only comes alive when the author explores the characters and their relationships.

Book Details

Published
January 1, 2011
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Pages
448
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780446618618

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