Caught Stealing
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3.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
A retired baseball player finds himself fighting for his life in this “fantastically hopped-up thriller [with] a wrong-man plot worthy of Hitchcock” (Entertainment Weekly, Editor’s Choice).
“Wow! Brutal, visceral, violent, edgy, and brilliant.”—Harlan Coben
Now a major motion picture starring Austin Butler and directed by Darren Aronofsky
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When two Russians in tracksuits beat Hank to a pulp, he gets the clue: someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.
Within twenty-four hours, Hank is running over rooftops, playing hide-and-seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor. All because of some Russian hoods and a flat-out freakshow of goons. All because once, in another life, the only thing Hank wanted to steal was third base—without getting caught.
Henry “Hank” Thompson’s thrilling adventures continue:
CAUGHT STEALING • SIX BAD THINGS • A DANGEROUS MAN
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Except for her name Jacqueline Daniels (and, yes, she's known by her colleagues at the Chicago Police Department and by her friends as "Jack Daniels") there's not an original trope in this competent, fast-paced thriller by newcomer Konrath. A lieutenant investigating a particularly gruesome series of homicides, Daniels is like every other hard-boiled fictional cop obsessed with work, afraid to commit emotionally and overcaffeinated. The other characters also follow formula: her partner is an overweight glutton with a heart of gold; her boss is tough but fair; the federal agents assigned to help her are territorial, superior and ineffectual. And the criminal himself, a serial killer who calls himself the "Gingerbread Man," only differs from others of his ilk in his methodology, not his psychology. He tortures and kills attractive young women, leaving their mutilated bodies in public places. Konrath, who has "performed improvisational comedy" according to his bio, likes to toss off one-liners, and while they're occasionally clever, they lend a jokey tone that jars with the seriousness of the almost gratuitously horrific crimes. Reading like an ill-conceived cross between Carl Hiaasen and Thomas Harris, this clich -ridden first novel should find a wide audience among less discriminating suspense fans.
Customer Reviews
Not for the squeamish
3.5 stars
Author
American novelist, screenwriter, and comic book author. His novels include titles in the crime, sci-fi and horror genres. His screen adaptation of this book, released late August 2025, was directed by Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Black Swan, The Whale) and stars Austin Butler (Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Elvis, Dune Part Two).
In brief
Protagonist Hank was a star high school baseball player in the San Francisco Bay area of California until he suffered a career-ending leg injury in a motor vehicle accident, in which he was the driver and his passenger, and best friend, died. He ends up working as a bar tender in New York in his 30s and is in the process of drinking himself to death when a couple of Russians he’s never seen before come into the bar and beat him up badly. How badly, you ask? Badly enough that he loses a kidney. This inspires him to give up drinking, which proves easier said than done, especially when the Russkies and sundry other equally unsavoury types keep trying to kill him for reasons unknown. There follows a heist type narrative with a considerable body count, some of it thanks to our boy’s determination not to go down without a fight. Substance abuse is also involved, although not fentanyl given that the book came out in 2004.
Writing
Hard boiled, laced with ironic humour. Good pace, albeit more reminiscent of screenplay than novel. Suitably convoluted plot, if somewhat exhaustingly/tediously so by the end IMO. Character development limited.
Note
The title is possibly/probably a doff of the hat to Been Caught Stealing by Jane’s Addiction. If that song appears on the soundtrack of the movie, we’ll know for sure.