Listen, see. When the Big Cheese has a beef there's only one thing to do- get your trigger guys on the horn for the grift. Unfamiliar with the art of flimflam? Well, I'm about to spill everything you need to know about a swell caper novel, and I ain't taking you on a ride. A theme prevalent in Crime Fiction, this list also spills into some more speculative capers, yet each of these reads features stings, scams, Big Shots, stoolies, sleuths, and stiffs. Selected and curated by SJPL Librarians.
POTENTIAL STARTING POINT! If you've never read a caper novel, this is a solid example of what you might expect from the theme. "Mob-connected loanshark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind -- plus his "friends" have a bad habit of dying there. So…
A rare masterpiece by Picasso is about to go to auction, and the whole world is watching. But bright art student Halston Graham sees an opportunity. One that could secure millions for her future, and freedom for her wrongly imprisoned father. To…
Danielewski's (The Little Blue Kite) epic novel begins with Kalin March, the new kid at the local high school, and his classmate Tom Gatestone, son of a well-established family, as they devise a plot to rescue two horses from a slaughterhouse. This…
Arlo and Drienne are ‘mades’—clones of company executives, deemed important enough to be saved should their health fail. Mades work around the clock to pay off the debt incurred by their creation, though most are Reaped—killed and harvested for…
Skwerl and Cheese are down on their luck and about to find themselves tangled in the heist of their lives. Skwerl, once an elite member of the CIA's paramilitary unit, was cast out after a raid gone wrong in Afghanistan. Big Cheese Aziz, a former…
A confidence scheme, when properly executed, will follow five movements in close and inviolable order.
I. The Mark II. The Intrusion. III. The Ballyhoo. IV. The Knot. V. All In.
There may be many counterstrikes along the way, for such is the…
First in a trilogy. Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of…
He was her partner—both in crime and between the sheets. It’s been five years since professional thief Celeste St. Pierre laid eyes on Magnus Larsson. These days, she runs a Manhattan antique store, but her talent for stealing beautiful, shiny…
Enter a world ruled by dragons…
Anahrod lives only for survival, preferring to thrive in the jungles of the Deep with the titan drake she keeps by her side. When an adventuring party saves her from capture by the local warlord, Sicaryon, she is…
Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain’s most beloved World War II veterans. Now in their late nineties, Josephine and Penny are in huge demand, beloved of journalists and producers, popping up on red carpets and at fundraisers and festivals all over…
Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see…
Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in Mayfair. The place is packed with treasures, a glittering symbol of wealth and power, but dark secrets…
First in a series. Simi Chopra is on a bad-luck streak. She’s lost yet another job, her student loan debt won’t stop growing, her basement apartment is a certifiable flood zone, and now her best friend has been accused of stealing a…
In this captivating, irreverent 1960s-set caper from Kalteis (Under an Outlaw Moon), small-time Toronto thugs Lenny Ovitz and Gabe Zoller make their living strong-arming store owners into paying protection money to their boss, Ernie Zimm. Having…
After the demise of the Soviet Union, the newly established Russian government privatized its industry by issuing vouchers to all of its citizens, allowing them the chance to be shareholders in the country’s burgeoning businesses. The slips are…
Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star who turned out to be a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse…
At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going for him. He is shorter than average, gap-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He’s also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie.
Ezra's summer at Last…
When former platoon sergeant Matt Kubelsky is paroled from Ray Brook Federal Correctional Institute in upstate New York, he’s surprised to find his ex-girlfriend waiting for him out in the parking lot. An ex-girlfriend he’s spent years pining for…
Clara Johnson communes with spirits, often brokering deals on their behalf. Clara tries to warn desperate neighbors off these deals, knowing every charm a spirit bestows comes with a trick, but her own gift means she cannot outright refuse. When…
They may be bad at running an inn, but they’re the best team of con artists in the Old Queendom. When a client approaches Darin with a high-paying job, he knows he should refuse. The job is boosting a shipment of imperial dream wine, the most…
