The Lockpicker

Jake Ahn, the titular thief of this blunt and often brutal crime novel from Chang (Fade to Clear), shoots his former partner, Bobby Null, after the latter betrays him in Seattle, and runs off to San Francisco (with a backpack containing $8,755 in cash) to hide with his brother, Eugene. Jake starts selling jewels, setting up his next score, and falling in love with Eugene’s wife, Rachel. Meanwhile, the mentally unstable Bobby luckily survives the bullet in his gut and embarks on a quest for revenge. Chang spends a little too much time on the flashbacks to Bobby and Jake’s brief partnership, but the sexual tension as Jake and Rachel fall for each other in the present day more than compensates. Also engrossing are both Bobby’s amateurish, often violent search for Jake and the detail Chang provides about robberies, from casing the stores to fencing the loot. Fans of hard-boiled and caper novels will be satisfied. [em](May) [/em]