Just Watch Me

This terrific series launch from bestseller Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter) opens with master thief Riley Wolfe, an antihero Dexter fans will relish, using a helicopter to steal a 12-ton statue in broad daylight during its installation ceremony in Chicago. Wolfe also abducts the honoree, a greedy pharmaceutical mogul who developed a cancer treatment he only sells for $500,000 a dose, before pushing him to his death from the aircraft. After that act of vigilante justice, Wolfe seeks “a heist that was beyond impossible, something ridiculous, unthinkable, stupid, totally out of the question,” and finds one after learning that the Iranian crown jewels are scheduled to be exhibited at Manhattan’s Eberhardt Museum. He sets his sights on the exhibit’s prize, the Ocean of Light, a diamond valued at more than $15 billion, despite the formidable array of security, both electronic and human. His crafty multistep plan is a pleasure to watch unfold, and Lindsay deepens his lead with the revelation that Wolfe is capable of killing without any pretense of a moral justification. Fans of the Ocean’s Eleven film franchise will be eager for more. Author tour. Agent: Nick Ellison, Nicholas Ellison Agency. (Dec.)