The Pierre Hotel Affair: How Eight Gentleman Thieves Orchestrated the Largest Jewel Heist in History

Simone’s less than compelling account of a daring 1972 robbery of Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel reads like fiction, and in the absence of any explanation of his sources and methods for recreating events from more than 40 years ago, he inevitably invites skepticism about the truth of his story. In particular, Simone (The Lufthansa Heist) presents lines of dialogue—including from background characters whose words would not have had lingering relevance even at the time—as if they are accurately represented word for word. More significantly, he does nothing to support his hard-to-believe representation that legendary Manhattan DA Frank Hogan not only assigned the high-profile prosecution to a relative novice but eventually agreed to a sweetheart plea bargain for those who were arrested, a deal that encompassed the theft of millions of dollars in jewels and granted “unconditional immunity for any known or unknown crimes they may have committed, abetted, conspired, or implicated in.” Coauthor Sacco, the only surviving participant in the robbery, weighs in only intermittently, in asides that add little to the narrative. (May)