This was a fun book to listen to while I packing. I feel like I gained a bit of insight into how the FBI works art crimes and there was also some insight into how they’re continuing to handle the Gardner Heist (badly).

Very well-written non-fiction book with lots of insights into how the author went undercover to recover stolen art.

The author's inside view of the world of art theft investigations is interesting. He focuses exclusively on high-profile thefts, which in reality is but a small part of the thievery going on in the art world. That leads me to think that the motivation for those investigations is fame, and so the more mundane crimes by art dealers cheating artists and owners (for example, the kind I am unfortunately familiar with) are ignored and unpunished. But an interesting book nonetheless.

2.1 Okay

Book Selection for November 18, 2015.

An enjoyable topic for me. This was interesting for the insight into how the FBI went about recovering stolen art and artifacts (i.e. undercover work) but after awhile the stories got repetitive. The book was fine, if skimmable.

This had potential to be really interesting, and at times almost was. As a former Philadelphian, I appreciated his descriptions of the Barnes.