Among Thieves
By David Hosp
Grand Central Publishing
$24.99, hard cover, 373 pages, 978-0-446-58015-1 (2010)
David Hosp is a Boston lawyer practicing in the trial department with the law firm of Goodwin & Proctor LLC. He spends a part of his practice working pro bono defending individuals through the New England Innocence Project. His third novel, Innocence, was inspired by his representation of a man wrongly convicted of murdering a police officer.
This novel is based on the 1990 art theft of paintings, now valued at half a billion dollars, from Boston‘s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Although the thieves have never been caught, this lively tale of fiction has plenty of facts from the actual theft to make a very plausible and convincing story about how the heist might have occurred. The author notes in his acknowledgement that some of the specifics were obtained from police reports, as well as news articles and scholarly analysis of the robbery.
The book also takes dramatic license by alleging that James “Whitey” Bulger – a crime boss based out of Boston and currently on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List – was likely involved in some way with the robbery. Bulger was heavily involved in organized crime in the early 1990’s, so his inclusion in the book (even if it is fiction) adds richness and depth to the tale.
On his way to see a Red Sox game on Memorial Day, Scott Finn stops off to see a friend from his past, Devon Malley. Finn is a lawyer and Malley has just been locked up in the Nashua Street Jail after having been arrested for stealing designer dresses and lingerie from a high-end clothing store on Newberry Street.
After Finn agrees to take on Malley’s case, some of Boston‘s most hardened criminals are horribly tortured and killed. Their deaths show all the signs of being committed by a trained IRA member. Once he finds out that these men have ties to his client, Finn knows that Malley is holding out on him.
When he finds out the facts, that Malley was involved in the twenty year-old theft from the Gardner museum, along with IRA operative Liam Kilbranish, Finn goes on a hunt for the missing artwork himself as a way to help his client. But Kilbranish knows the other men involved in stealing the paintings, and he’s not afraid to use any method necessary to find out where the artwork is hidden – including going after Finn and his colleagues.
This suspense-filled novel is engaging and fast-paced. David Hosp does a masterful job of capturing the pulse of Boston and its people.
Patriots’ Day, which marks the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, is celebrated only in Boston. It’s one of three smug local holidays intended to remind an indifferent world of Boston‘s place in American history. For all the city’s parochial pride, however, few Americans would have heard of Lexington and Concord were it not for Schoolhouse Rock. Even worse, few Bostonians have any idea what Patriots’ Day is intended to celebrate. They do know, though, that it means an extra day off, and it’s the day on which the Boston Marathon is run every year. It’s also the day the Boston Red Sox play a special morning game at Fenway Park. The holiday causes mayhem in the city, as people line the streets early, and the bars are packed by midmorning.
Although it suffers from a few plots misfires (like wouldn’t you assume if a couple of your client’s criminal pals were killed, you as his attorney might be in a bit of danger?), I found the explanation for the art theft convincing. If you remember the heist from the Gardner museum, if you like reading legal thrillers, if you enjoy storytelling based on actual events, or if you just want to be thoroughly entertained, this novel is sure to satisfy.
Buy it on Amazon here.
Comments