Thieves and Assassins in Books

2006 – At least six men staged Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53,116,760 in bank notes from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.

This is one of today's "Events in History"

I'm going to share my odd fascination with books (fiction!) about the criminal element. Usually thieves, sometimes assassins. What am I talking about?

Well, there's Mercedes Lackey's Take a Thief or Pickpocket Countess by Bronwyn Scott or Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts.

For assassin books, I really enjoy Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before) and I just finished reading Leslie Langtry's 'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy (the first in her Greatest Hits series).

I've even gone so far as to gather up recommendations about thief books. So here's a list - organized loosely by genre. There is some overlap, especially when it comes to YA books. Also, this list may be a little outdated (I requested the recommendations nearly a yr ago). I have NOT read all of these.

Mystery/Thriller: Jonathon Gash's Lovejoy series ; Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series ; Donald Westlake's Dortmunder series

Fantasy/Sci-Fi: Take a Thief - Mercedes Lackey ; The Thief's Gamble - Juliet McKenna ; Laura Anne Gilman's Retriever series ; The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch ; The Thief Lord - Cornelia Funke

Romance: Honest Illusions - Nora Roberts ; To Love a Thief - Julie Anne Long ; Thieves, Spies, and Other Lovers - Anne Stuart, Dawn Carroll, Lynn Erickson which includes Anne Stuart's Catspaw. Catspaw II - Anne Stuart ; Night and Day - Anne Stuart, Gayle Wilson ; Pickpocket Countess - Bronwyn Scott ; Step into Darkness and Theft of Shadows – Naomi Bellis ; If You Dare - Adrianne Byrd ; Lady Thief and Once a Thief and Always a Thief - Kay Hooper ; Flirting With Danger and Billionaires Prefer Blondes and Don't Look Down and Touch of Minx - Suzanne Enoch

Misc. (Historical, General, etc.): The Thomas Crown Affair - Evan Lee Heyman ; The Secret River - Kate Grenville ; If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon

YA or Children's: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak ; Montmorency series - Eleanor Updike ; The Thief and The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner ; The Legend of Nightfall and The Return of Nightfall - Mickey Zucker Reichert ; Marry Norton's Borrower series(?)

Biography: The Napolean of Crime (The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief) - Ben MacIntyre

Know of any others? Let me know! Same goes if you know of any other assassin books where the assassin is (one of) the main character(s).