Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief
by Bill Mason and Lee Gruenfeld
Villard $200
'I was always, sort of, interested in crime,' Bill Mason says. Almost every adolescent shares that interest, but most of us grow up to hold down steady jobs, pay bills and measure out our lives in MTR rides.
Yet the attraction of breaking the law never completely goes away. At least that's what writers like J.G. Ballard tell us. And it helps explain why Elmore Leonard is so popular.
For most of us, reading crook books is the closest we get to a crime-induced adrenaline rush, and Mason's confessional does the job quite well. He's no Ian Rankin, but Mason does have the advantage of being able to truly speak in the first person. The book might feel dated - he had to wait for the statute of limitations to expire on the crimes he admits to - but it's a small price to pay for authenticity.
It's easy to vicariously share Mason's thrill as he pulls off each job, seeing it as 'a game ... a challenge'. He admits getting addicted to the thrill of a successful job. And he was successful. Estimates of the total value of his thefts run to US$35 million, and his victims included Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Truman Capote and Johnny Weismuller.