Damian Black is a former art thief who was smart enough to retire before he got caught. He is enjoying a comfortable retirement in Atlanta when a former associate named Sean Lefonte offers him a chance to make one more score by stealing a group of paintings from a local museum. Damian misses the excitement of the old days so he agrees to consider it. His friend and partner, Jerome, doesn't think the job is a good idea. He doesn't want to push their luck, especially because a very determined former French detective is still following Damian, trying to prove that he was behind a string of art thefts in Europe. However, Jerome is paying alimony to 5 ex-wives so he's not in a position to take a firm stand against a plan that could make both men a lot of money.
Damian goes to check out the museum and while he's there he meets a young woman named Angel and is immediately attracted to her. It turns out she's about to start work as the museum's art director. That doesn't stop Damian from pursuing her or from continuing to consider doing the theft. However, as soon as he realizes that he's falling for Angel he goes to Sean and refuses the job because he isn't willing to betray her. Sean is desperate for the money from the theft, so Damian's refusal to participate in the robbery sets events in motion that bring all the threads of the story together.
This was a frustrating book for me. There were things about it that I liked. The suave, debonair thief with his own moral code is a classic anti-hero and Damian fills the bill nicely. Angel started out seeming like one of those overly sweet heroines, but she turned out to have hidden depths that saved her from being saccharine. As a couple they worked well together. Unfortunately, there were also things, both large and small, that I didn't like. In the end those things made it impossible for me to really enjoy the book.
The small things were sort of petty, but they still bothered me. I hate it when an author pushes something too far. In this case it was Damian's finances. He invested the money from his thefts and ended up a billionaire. If he had been a multi-millionaire I would have accepted it with no problem, but billionaire just seemed way over the top. I also had problems with the fact that there were several turns of phrase that were used incorrectly or in an odd way. For example, I've never heard anyone refer to Coca-Cola bottle glasses. It's just Coke bottle glasses. That might be a regional phrase, but other examples were just wrong. In the context in which it was used in this book, the phrase is exotic locations, not erotic locations. How did that not get caught in editing?
Ultimately those things wouldn't have mattered all that much if it weren't for the big problem---this book had a lot of coincidences. A lot. The situation wasn't improved by the fact that both of the bad guys are taken care of in a way that was much too convenient. I had one other serious problem. Angel has a connection to Sean. It was described in a way that allowed me to accept the idea that Angel tolerates things from him that I would never put up with from anyone. However, Sean ends up doing something to her that I honestly found totally unforgivable, but Angel just lets it go. She doesn't even struggle with it. It wasn't that it made me lose respect for Angel, it was more that it rang totally false.
I think the tone of the book was supposed to be sort of like the Thomas Crown Affair, which I enjoyed. Instead it ended up seeming ridiculous and contrived, which drained all the fun out of it.
Grade: D+ Not even close to being a DIK for me.
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