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Criminal Karma (Hardcover)

Customer Rating:

10 out of 10

3 total reviews

Our Price:

$18.07

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Product Description
Successfully breaking into a posh hotel room where he hopes to make a lucrative jewel heist, ethical thief Robert Rivers narrowly escapes an attempt on his life and embarks on a high-stakes plot to recapture the jewel, an effort marked by a cult leader, a crime cabal, and gunslingers. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.

Product Details

Author: Steven M. Thomas

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Format: Hardcover

ISBN: 9780345497833

SKU: 11610575

Customer Reviews (only showing reviews with text)

Reviews 1 to 5

10 out of 10

Fun, fast-paced crime novel with a cool thief (DonDonSays, San Diego, 2009-08-05)

It is January 1996 and Robert ?Rob? Rivers and his partner Reggie England are following a rich lady out to Palm Springs at the height of the winter season to steal a diamond necklace from her. Within a few fast-paced chapters, Rivers has run up against a homicidal moron named Jimmy Z who manages to throw a wrench in the gears of his careful plan. Rivers and England get away from the scene of the messed up robbery in the desert but find more trouble waiting back in Venice Beach where they and the rich lady, Evelyn Evermore, live. It turns out that Evermore is mixed up with a corrupt New Age guru who is trying to pressure her into giving him the same necklace that Rivers is after. The guru, whose name is Baba Raba, is mixed up in turn with some murderous Italian gangsters in a high stakes real estate scam and needs the necklace to fulfill an obligation to them. Meanwhile, The rich lady doesn?t care all that much about the necklace. She is more concerned about her missing daughter and grandson, who the guru has promised to help locate in exchange for the necklace.Thomas weaves a fascinating story as the gangsters, the guru and the robbers all go after the same prize and Rob ends up helping Evermore locate her lost grandson. Along with gritty realism and hair raising action scenes, the story has a lot of black humor and a great sense of place. Thomas captures the strange world of Venice Beach in the 1990s better than anyone else I have ever read. This is an entertaining, enjoyable novel with a lot more depth than most thrillers. The characters really come alive and you care about what happens to them. An all round great read.

10 out of 10

Super Second Novel (CrimeFictionGuide, Pasadena, California, 2009-08-07)

Steven M. Thomas has followed up his killer first novel, ?Criminal Paradise,? with another colorful, exciting and well written crime fiction saga set in Southern California --this time in Venice Beach and the Coachella Valley. Robert Rivers, Thomas? burglar/stickup man hero, and his ex-biker sidekick Reggie England are after a fabulous diamond necklace. When they follow socialite Evelyn Evermore out to the desert to steal it, everything that can go wrong does go wrong and they end up on the run. But Rivers doesn?t give up easily and he soon regroups and goes after the diamonds again in Venice Beach where Evelyn lives and is a disciple of a 300 pound guru named Baba Raba who parades around town in nothing but a loincloth, luring in new followers to his Center for Enlightened Beings. Rivers soon discovers that Baba is after the same prize piece of jewelry he is, and the game is on with gunfights, safecracking and tense encounters with the cops. As in the first novel, Thomas does a super job of capturing the atmosphere and ambiance of the SoCal coast, and even works in some romance between Rivers and tough young lady he meets at Baba?s ashram. There is also a totally winning character named Ozone Pacific -- a homeless kid who turns out to be the key to the whole mystery that surrounds Evelyn, Baba, and the matched, rose-colored diamond necklace. Because of the quality of the writing and the depth of character development, I recommend this book to readers of literary novels as well as mystery and crime fiction fans.

10 out of 10

Fun, fast paced story (susysmarty, Costa Mesa, 2009-08-15)

In this story a likable or even loveable criminal named Robert Rivers and his less loveable but funny sidekick Reggie England are out to steal a fabulous pink diamond necklace from a wealthy Southern California socialite named Evelyn Evermore. The book opens with Rob and Reggie following Evelyn and her tough guy driver out to Indian Wells where they plan to carry out the heist. Thomas?s description of the Palm Springs area is wonderfully evocative -- as is his depiction latter of the colorful seaside setting in Venice Beach, Santa Monica and Malibu where the story goes after some exciting action in Indian Wells.Rob gets his hands on the necklace in Indian Wells but then runs into some serious trouble and loses it again. Back in Venice Beach he regroups and goes after the prize again with admirable determination and craft. But his venture is complicated as he encounters a charismatic guru named Baba Raba who has Evelyn under his spell and as he begins to care about Evelyn who has a tragedy in her background.Baba is after the necklace, too. As are some murderous gangsters he is involved with. When Rob infiltrates Baba?s ashram and befriends Evelyn, the book becomes a high-powered thriller that in the end leaves the reader both breathless and deeply moved. This is really a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes exciting action, interesting characters and fine writing. Oh, and it is funny, too!

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