The Burglar, a murder mystery, follows the day-to-day exploits of Elle Stowell a experienced house burglar in Los Angeles. Stowell looks younger than her age and is able fit right in with the beautiful, fit and energetic women who live in the neighborhoods that she robs. The Burglar is the latest in a series of several books written by Thomas Perry.

Elle Stowell has never been arrested for Burglary in spite of the fact that she has robbed multiple house in well to do neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Things are going well for Stowell until she stumbles onto the scene of a multiple murder and she begins being pursued by someone who must have seen her on site. To save herself she must now use her skills to solve a crime rather than commit one.

Thomas Perry has received numerous accolades for his excellent books, but I expect this one will not be remembered as one of his best. The descriptions of how to break into a house and what to steal are tedious. When Elle is discovered she seems to be able to carry on staying in nice hotels and sleep well while people around her are being murdered. When the murderers are revealed, their motives for committing several crimes seem superficial and opportunistic rather than skillfully planned. Finally how could a security company hired to monitor break-ins not know someone was monitoring their offices for weeks. All this makes the book hard to read.

The book is structurally and grammatically well written and a quick read, but the story line leaves me with no choice but to not recommend this book. I give it a 2 on 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and The Mysterious Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

A young - and very clever- burglar breaks into a home in search of cash and jewels and finds three people murdered in bed with a camera rolling. It gets better. She steals the camera, deletes any pictures of herself, breaks in to the house again and replaces the camera. Now she is being hunted by the killers. She launches her own exhaustive investigation while several attempts are made on her life. Well written. Excellent plot o

2.5 stars
A fascinating story poorly told. There is so much extraneous information that has nothing to do with the plot or the characters that it urges one to skip over pages. The main character is inconsistent; a young obsessive compulsive woman burglar who, while touted as highly intelligent, does many dumb, self-destructive things.
With a great deal of tight editing, this would have the potential of a bestseller.

This was an interesting take on the burglar prototype! Young, small and pretty, this burgler was at the top of her game, until she ran into a triple murder in the house she chose to rob. Not only did she not get anything worthwhile, the murderers are now looking for her! Well done and enjoyable read.

2.5 Stars
This book was a disappointment to me, and also somewhat of a surprise. I am usually a fan of Thomas Perry and I love his Jane Whitefield series. I have also enjoyed several of his standalone books. This book though, just about drove me crazy at times. I will admit that the first quarter of the book had my heart racing, but not always in a good way. Even though he created scenes that built up the suspense, at the same time I was pulled out of the story because the MC made such inane decisions. For someone who was purportedly smart and good at her trade, her decision making skills really left something to be desired.

Then, somewhere around the middle of the book, things just slowed down. It took me a while to figure out what it was that the MC was attempting to accomplish, and eventually, I just wanted the book to be over. Whenever that happens, it is not a good experience for me.

Overall, the book was just not believable. The situations that the MC supposedly is able to pull off are just beyond the realm of belief. (she seriously sneaks into the headquarters of a black ops security company and plants all types of surveillance equipment, not once, but twice...and gets away clean...? And why in the world would she go back into the house of a triple murder to RETURN the camera? Why not just send in the tape if she felt the police should see it? )

These types of decisions are difficult to believe and make the reading experience underwhelming.

Thomas Perry’s The Burglar has the potential to be a great page-turning thriller novel. A young woman breaks into a house and stumbles upon a murder scene, and is hunted throughout the book as she tries to track down the killer or killers. But this young woman isn’t stealing on a dare, for fun or even for the first time – she’s a career burglar. While this creates the perfect opening for her knowledge that allows her to keep ahead of the killers, it also kills the opportunity to create that rising sense of panic and paranoia that makes you keep reading. The story is told from a methodical, detached point of view that never made me feel like the protagonist was in serious danger and took away the excitement that’s created from a sense of vulnerability in many other thriller novels.

Describe for yourself the perfect burglar. Think for a minute. How about small enough to wriggle through a pet door? Shinny up a drainpipe? What about appearance? Maybe female, young (20ish), attractive and in good shape? Able to fit in as a co-ed home from college back east somewhere?
Thomas Perry may have invented the perfect thief in Elle Stowell. She fits right into all those categories, and she is a professional. Adept at spotting the tell-tale signs that a house is empty, she can be found running through upscale neighborhoods early and late, sporting expensive running shoes and college sweatshirts. No one gives her a second look as she blends in to the scenery, just another fitness nut pursuing her passion.
What Elle is really doing is pursuing her livelihood, and she is very, very good at it. But things go off the rails suddenly when she opens the door to the master suite in the home of an art gallery owner and finds three bodies, shot while enjoying a three-way. The only thing Elle takes from that house is a camera, still running, which may or may not have captured her image as she entered the room.
The action accelerates as Elle becomes the quarry of – who? Someone is stalking her. Someone obviously had other cameras running in the house, and it quickly becomes apparent to Elle that she must solve the murders to prevent becoming the next victim.
The pace is fast and the plot, while seemingly “out there,” is believable. Elle could be the next jogger coming down the sidewalk. The Burglar could be the first in a good series.

The Burglar ⭐️

She is scouting out her next house when everything starts to fall apart. I like that she uses her brain when stealing and making a quiet get away. It showed that even though she is a bad person she has the capability to do more with her life because of her knowledge and skills.
I really enjoyed the writing and the protagonist was fun and likeable and it was a really good book.


Thank you so much to booksgosocial via netgalley for sending me an ARC copy of the Burglar by Thomas Perry. This will be released on January 18,2019.
All opinions are my own.

I am a big fan of Thomas Perry. THE OLD MAN, his 2017 title, was one of my favorites for the year. His Edgar-winning THE BUTCHER'S BOY is a classic of the genre. All of that said, Perry is incapable of writing a bad novel. Unfortunately, at least for me, THE BURGLAR comes close. I am disappointed to say that I found this a slog to get through. The premise is interesting enough: a female burglar stumbles upon a nasty triple homicide while working a house. There is plenty of trade craft--those unique details of burglary that clearly come from copious research. The main character, Elle Stowell, has an interesting back story. Perry's writing is crisp and clear. I can't quite put my finger on what was missing, but overall my reaction to the reading was pretty muted. I certainly will read Perry again, but this one is a thumb's-down for me.

This is the first time is read anything from Thomas Perry. I really loved it! It was so hard to put it down. Full of great characters and lots of suspense. Highly recommend!

I have been a Thomas Perry fan for years but this was a huge disappointment. I felt plotwise that I had read this story before. A lot. This story lacked his usual twists and interesting characters. I finished the book even though I had lost interest early on and ended up being sorry I did. If you like Perry and have read his other amazing books and loved them like I have you may want to skip this one.

I am a big fan of Thomas Perry but I have to admit that I did not enjoy The Burglar as much as I had anticipated. The book starts off with a bang, and has good tempo, making it an easy read, but there were aspects that I found somewhat undeveloped.
The plot is a take on the common burglar stumbles on murder scene and has to solve the murder before either being implicated by the police or hunted by the perpetrators. Lawrence Block wrote a whole series on this premise. Perry does a good job of making this unique by really getting into the head of the burglar, Elle. I really enjoyed learning what was going on through her mind as she breaks into a home, or even scouts out potential targets. It’s clear that Perry did a lot of research to make the burglary scenes as credible as possible. As is often the case with Perry, we learn a lot about the main character efficiently, her backstory includes the pertinent, without weighing the reader down with too much information.
The plotting of the book doesn’t do the characters any favors however. Elle, who is smart about many things, takes forever to realize that she’s not being hunted down by the police but by someone who knows she’s on to them, which I found to be unrealistic. I like the idea of the art scam that got everything in motion, but it wasn’t presented in a way that flowed with the plot or told us anything until the very end. And it wouldn’t be accurate to say that Elle figured out anything, in the last few pages of the book she was listening through the wall as one of the characters decided to spell out the whole plot from art fraud to murder to another character. I would fully expect this to be something that came out through the narration of the story, revealing bits at a time as one or more of the characters learn what’s going on.
In short, I liked the parts, but not the assembly.

This book pulled me in from the title! The plot is like nothing that I have ever heard of, a female burglar. Very clever and very detailed. I love the backstory and intricate details but other readers may not like slower pace as the story builds.

I received free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an impartial review. Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic!

I enjoyed the premise of this book. A young female (!) burglar stumbles upon a horrific crime before she is able to complete her own nonviolent one. I liked the twists and turns in the story but I felt oddly disconnected from the main character even though the entire novel was in her voice. I had hopes that the author would go a little more in depth with her history or her story as to why she preferred so much isolation.

That said, I enjoyed the story itself and it kept me guessing until the reveal! This is a great little read as long as you are not looking for a character study. My rating is 3.5 for The Burglar.

I had read the author, Thomas Perry's last two books, the Old Man and the Bomb Maker. The Old Man was one of the better books I had read in 2017. The Bomb Maker on the other hand was not my cup of tea. I jumped on the newest book, The Burglar with some trepidation.

I was very happy to read a book that was much as a joy to read as the Old man. The protagonist, a female named Elle, has her occupation as a burglar planned out too a tee.. Perry has this character meticulously developed. Her approach to casing homes, the knowledge of executing the burglary, and her interactions with the supporting characters.. Although she is a criminal, Perry makes the reader really find Elle to be likable.

Perry slowly develops the plot, which is very plausible and believable, and draws the reader along with clues and details that are both challenging and suspenseful, The prose is engaging and maintains steady pace.all the while working towards a culminating conflict.

This book is a great read.

The Burglar is my first book by Thomas Perry, and I chose it because when Verushka mentioned it on her blog, I thought it sounded like fun.

Elle is young, small, and fit. Being small is a good thing when you want to burgle a house and entry through a doggy door presents no problem. Elle is a professional; she knows the skills of the trade from the burglary itself to the right fence for the goods.

However, when Elle burgles the home of an art dealer, she discovers a triple homicide and a camera still running on the scene. What to do? She takes the camera, edits out her own presence, and returns it for the police to find.

Unfortunately, her attempt to aid the the police in finding out who committed the murders goes awry, and Elle finds herself a target.

Read in July; blog review scheduled for Dec. 26.

NetGalley/Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press
Suspense. Jan. 8, 2019. Print length: 304 pages.

I lost interest in this book very quickly and did not finish it. Because I did not finish it I am unable to leave a review.

First, I really like Thomas Perry so thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this manuscript.
This story is about Elle a young pretty girl who supports herself by being a burglar. She comes from a family of thieves and grifters who abandoned her when she was a teen. She was able to take care of herself by being smarter than the people around her.
Elle is a very accomplished burglar. She plans and stakes out the homes she breaks into, and she knows what to take, and how to fence it without getting caught. Then she hit a huge problem when she broke into a house and found the victims of a horrible murder. Unfortunately hidden cameras showed her to the bad guys, and she finds herself being hunted. Elle decides the only way to end this is to solve the murder and expose the bad guys. The book takes on her complicated dangerous journey to find the killer and get enough evidence to give to the police.
She is a typical Thomas Perry heroine. She is smart, pretty and somewhat a loner. Although there was a part of the book where I thought she should have figured someone out sooner, the story works well.

From my review on Goodreads:

I always love Thomas Perry books. The details he includes, the nearly step-by-step actions his protagonists take, keep me following the plot, even if the plot itself is not strong.

In The Burglar, Perry’s new novel, his protagonist is a young woman living in Los Angeles who earns her living by being a successful house burglar. We go with her and her every step, getting ready, breaking into a house, what she looks for, how she hides or what decisions she might have to make.

When she breaks into the home of a wealthy art dealer, she stumbles upon him with two women, and they’ve all been murdered. As she stands in the doorway, she sees a camera that is recording the scene. And this is where the story begins to move into a thriller, where she’s forced into a race to save her life.

I like the detail Perry pays to his characters and their actions. This protagonist reminds me of Jane Whitefield, his brilliantly conceived character who takes people running from something into hiding and new lives. The same level of detail in the Whitefield novels is applied here.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

Thomas Perry is incapable of writing a bad book, but this isn't one of his many good and a few great ones. It's about a smart, skillful young woman who's very good at her work - thoroughly prepared, at the top of her game, the peak of physical fitness, and so good at breaking into all kinds of places that she's never been caught burgling the homes of wealthy Angelenos. But Elle, the eponymous protagonist, never quite interests the reader enough to care about what will happen when the mysterious black SUVs keep turning up at the scenes of her crimes, even when they murder her best friend. The plot is murky - what the killers want and how what Elle may or may not have seen at the site of a triple murder connects to it - isn't enough to propel it to a So what ? conclusion.