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Crooks and Cons Crime Fiction Booklist

A list of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist (BL), Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus, and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on this list. Titles are alphabetically by author.Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

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• Spectres in the Smoke: A Creeping Narrative
  Author: Broadbent, Tony
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312290268 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  In austere, post-World War II England, Jethro the cat burglar must again take on the mantle of spy for MI5 as he attempts to prevent a plot to undermine Britain's new Labour Government.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Crime Fiction
  Updated 9.17.05
• Breakout
  Author: Stark, Richard
  Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 089296779x Date: 2002
  Booklist PW
  Parker's back in jail, but not just any old jail; it's the correctional center, where people without bail wait before and during their trial. So Parker's first order of business is to build a network among these cons and break on through to the other side.
  Suggested Reading: Hardboiled
  Updated 9.23.02
• Bad News
  Author: Westlake, Donald
  Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 089296717x Date: 2001
  Kirkus PW
  John Dortmunder doesn't like manual labor. So when he gets the offer of money to dig up a grave, he balks . . . then he wonders why Fitzroy Guilderpost, criminal mastermind, wants to pull a switcheroo of two 70-years-dead Indians.
  Suggested Reading: Capers
  Updated 3/1/01