Thick As Thieves

Sandra Brown — 2020

In this tantalizing thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown, a woman, seeking to learn her father's involvement in a twenty-year-old heist that ended in murder, runs afoul of his accomplices. Twenty years ago in the dead of night, four seemingly random individuals pulled the ultimate heist and almost walked away with half a million dollars. But by daybreak, their plan had been shot to hell. One of them was in the hospital. One was in jail. One was dead. And one got away with it. Arden Maxwell, the daughter of the man who disappeared all those years ago -- presumably with the money, after murdering his accomplice -- has never reconciled with her father's abandonment of her and her sister. After countless personal setbacks she decides to return to her family home near mysterious Caddo Lake, and finally get answers to the many questions that torment her. Little does she know, two of her father's co-conspirators -- a war hero and a corrupt district attorney -- are watching her every move. Ledge Burnet, a rebellious teen at the time of the heist, evaded his jail sentence by enlisting in the army. Now he's back in town to care for his ailing father -- and to keep his eye on the county's corrupt district attorney, whom he suspects was the real murderer. Although the two are bound to silence because of the crime they committed together, each has spent years waiting and hoping that the other will make a fatal misstep. But the arrival of their elusive accomplice's daughter, Arden, who may know more about the missing money than she's telling, sets them both on red alert. She ignites Ledge's determination to expose the D.A.'s treachery . . . and sparks a desire he wishes to deny.

Reviews

Lynn Braden@ftbooklover

Oct 8, 2021

Arden Maxwell decides to have her baby and live in the house that she and her sister vacated when Arden was ten year old. At the time, their father had disappeared leading to accusations that he committed a burglary of a local business and the murder of one of his accomplices. However, it isn't long before she loses her baby in the middle of the local grocery store. While trying to survive the depression that follows, Arden's sister, Lisa, attempts to convince her to come back with her to Dallas until she decides what to do with the rest of her life, but Arden isn't ready to leave the past behind and makes a plan to renovate the house using local contractor Ledge Burnet. Ledge's initial refusal doesn't deter Arden because she is now determined more than ever to find out what happened the night her father left them on the eve of Easter all those years ago. Troubling in Thick as Thieves is that Arden's miscarriage is seemly no more than a plot device that is gone as quickly as it is mentioned, however, the book is filled with suspense and intriguing secrets leading to a couple of dandy twists near the end of the book. The plot, though, doesn't hold up in the last several pages of the book, and the dialogue becomes stilted and less than realistic. These issues detract from a story that has many strong points. Overall, this is a decent romantic suspense story with a somewhat overly dramatic ending. 3 1/2 stars.