Review by Booklist Review
Kelly and Matt fell in love when they were young, but then Kelly went to college and Matt joined the army. They wrote each other for a while, but when Kelly stopped answering his letters, Matt gave up. He was eventually court-martialed and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Due to be released, he's shocked when Kelly offers to pick him up. But her intentions aren't as generous as Matt assumes. Kelly has a plan, and she needs Matt's help. She's become a talented counterfeiter and now hopes to expand into selling stolen art. Her first heist: the theft of some priceless Klimt sketches being transported across the U.S. by train. She needs Matt to enlist some of his old prison buddies to pull off the caper (on horseback!). Matt is agreeable, especially after Kelly promises him a hefty share of the proceeds, but there's more to the plan than Matt knows, and when things go wrong, they go really wrong. Reading Haven's novel is akin to watching a Coen brothers film: it's darkly funny, horrifically violent, packed with bizarre twists, and full of outrageous schemes, brutal double crosses, and sadistic revenge. It's not for the squeamish, but it's a powerful book--tightly written, with an original plot, compelling characters, and a stunning conclusion.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this exceptional heist thriller from Haven (Hold Fast as J.H. Gelernter), former army sergeant Matt Kubelsky is picked up from an upstate New York prison--where he just served five years for killing an unarmed prisoner while in the army--by his ex-girlfriend, Kelly Haggerty, who's hoping he might know someone who can pull off a robbery for her. Kelly's been using skills learned studying art in college to make a decent living at counterfeiting (mostly foreign currency, easily passed in New York City, where she lives), but now she wants to make a big score: paying robbers in fake cash to steal some Klimt drawings, which she can sell to a Qatari gentleman wanted by the DEA for laundering cocaine money for Hezbollah. Matt happens to know a guy from prison, Bob Wharton, who was involved in armed robberies for a neo-Nazi group, and Bob agrees to take on the theft of the Klimts. Haven stitches all this together seamlessly, and just when it seems that the story could be wrapping up, he piles on more action and twists. In addition, the various locales and the little flourishes (executioner's scimitar, anyone?) raise this to the book equivalent of a blockbuster movie. It's not to be missed. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Haven's crime-fiction debut (after the seafaring adventure novels Captain Grey's Gambit and Hold Fast, written under the name J.H. Gelernter) is an adrenaline-filled heist thriller that never lets go. Matt Kubelsky and Kelly Haggerty seem to attract trouble like magnets attract iron. When Matt is released from a New York federal prison, his ex-girlfriend Kelly unexpectedly picks him up. It turns out that Kelly, now a skilled counterfeiter, needs a bit of muscle for a complex art heist she is planning. What follows is a wild ride of a thriller, with something for everyone--a horseback robbery of an Amtrak train to steal artwork, theft from neo-Nazis, modern art, murder, international terrorism, romance, violence, revenge, action, yachts and private jets, and numerous double-crosses. Award-winning narrator Justin Price employs excellent pacing and maintains a breakneck speed that will have listeners on the edge of their seats. He ably creates well-developed characterizations, topped off by a smooth, polished delivery. VERDICT Haven is a writer to watch. Share this highly recommended audio with fans of Steve Hamilton, Thomas Perry, and Brad Taylor.--Scott DiMarco
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Criminal enterprises make strange bedfellows. A week before his release from a prison in upstate New York, Matt Kubelsky gets a call out of the blue from his high school girlfriend Kelly Haggerty, whom he hasn't seen in nearly 20 years. She has a sketchy business proposition for him. With no other prospects and despite faint internal alarm bells, he accepts. Can he believe her convoluted tale about Qatar and counterfeiting and art insurance and the superchallenging robbery of a cache of Klimt drawings that she wants him to execute? When she flashes some cash and makes herself sexually available, Matt's all in. His recent prison stint gives him the connections he needs to hire a ragtag criminal crew, the most menacing of them "the Nazi Bob Wharton." Haven's sinuous, fitful plot teeters on the brink of absurdity, zigzagging from Newark to Florida to Montana to Manhattan. Simmering beneath the cross-country caper is the mutual distrust between Matt and Kelly, complicated by their sexual compatibility. The story's perspective, alternating mostly between the two of them, occasionally expands to include other characters, keeping the reader a tantalizing half-step ahead of the action. The high point comes midway: a hilarious not-so-great train robbery. Rat-a-tat dialogue, concise character delineation, and brisk pacing will remind readers of Elmore Leonard. But Haven also sprinkles diverting sidebars about movies and the art world throughout, from the controversial painter Damien Hirst to the film Casablanca. A rip-roaring roller coaster ride from a fresh new voice. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
