Wyatt

A jewel heist that appears straightforward proves anything but in Australian author Disher's outstanding seventh thriller featuring Melbourne bank robber Wyatt Wareen, last seen in 1997's The Fallout. Intercepting and robbing an international courier should be as simple as car theft. Armed with inside information, Wyatt is looking forward to a quick pay-off. What Wyatt doesn't know is that his confederates can't be trusted, that the heist will yield not easily fenced jewels but a vast fortune in bonds, and that the courier is a professional criminal as adept and deadly as Wyatt himself. While his backstabbing former allies try to exploit a haul unexpectedly too valuable to pawn, the methodical Wyatt plots final retribution. The spare, economical prose perfectly suits this tale of mad love and crimes gone wrong, which will remind many of Westlake's better Parker novels%E2%80%94and should boost the reputation of Disher, winner of Australia's Ned Kelly Award, in the U.S. (Aug.)