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A Pot Thief Murder Mystery #4
The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein
Maybe it was the chance for an easy $2500. Or maybe it was the chance to examine a treasure trove of Anasazi pots...or maybe it was just a slow day at his Old Town Albuquerque shop that prompted Hubie Schuze to be blindfolded and chauffeured to meet a reclusive collector looking for a confidential appraisal. Sure, it was an odd setup, but what could possibly go wrong? Hubie s devil-may-care attitude fades fast when he finds three of his own Anasazi copies among the genuine antiquities. Worse, when the driver drops him back home, what he doesn t find are the twenty-five crisp hundred dollar bills the collector gave him. Incensed at the rip-off, Hubie is determined to recoup his cash, but Detective Whit Fletcher interrupts, dragging Hubie to the morgue to identify a John Doe. When the sheet is pulled back, Hubie is stunned to see the collector. Hubie is not a suspect yet. But the longer he pursues his missing appraisal fee, the more tangled he becomes in the collector s shadowy life.
214 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2010
About the author
J. Michael Orenduff
17 books122 followersMike Orenduff grew up in a house so close to the Rio Grand that he could frisbee a tortilla into Mexico. Despite such antics, he ended up in higher education, teaching at thirteen colleges in eight states and three countries. He was also an academic dean three times, an academic vice-president twice, a president four times, and a statewide chancellor once. His supporters say he welcomes new challenges. His critics say he cant hold a job. Newt Gingrich, in his book, To Renew America, called Orenduff A hero to the American People for his pioneering work in distance education.
After taking early retirement form higher education, Mike embarked on a new career as a fiction writer. His play, The Christmas Visitor, has won numerous awards. His murder mystery series has also received many accolades. The first in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, won the Dark Oak Mystery Contest and the Kindle version won the 2010 EPIC Award as the eBook of the Year in the Mystery/Suspense Category. The second book in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, was recently selected as the Fiction Book of the Year by the Public Safety Writers Association. Although the Pot Thief books are humorous murder mysteries, they also contain serious treatments of the issue of race and ethnicity.
Mike and Lai, his high school sweetheart, wife of forty-five years and noted art historian, have two grown children. Jay is a dean at Columbia University in New York, and Claire teaches art history at Georgia College and more importantly is the mother of their grandson, Bram.
After taking early retirement form higher education, Mike embarked on a new career as a fiction writer. His play, The Christmas Visitor, has won numerous awards. His murder mystery series has also received many accolades. The first in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, won the Dark Oak Mystery Contest and the Kindle version won the 2010 EPIC Award as the eBook of the Year in the Mystery/Suspense Category. The second book in the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, was recently selected as the Fiction Book of the Year by the Public Safety Writers Association. Although the Pot Thief books are humorous murder mysteries, they also contain serious treatments of the issue of race and ethnicity.
Mike and Lai, his high school sweetheart, wife of forty-five years and noted art historian, have two grown children. Jay is a dean at Columbia University in New York, and Claire teaches art history at Georgia College and more importantly is the mother of their grandson, Bram.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
April 9, 2020
Wow! I loved this book. The author has grown in his plot and writing style and the setting of Albuquerque is just super. As always our pot making, pot thief is in the middle of another sticky problem this time with the appraisal of a pot collection. There are two deaths, a little bit of a love interest for Hubert, some neat use of song and poem lyrics. All in all the author really put it all together for me in this some. And always time for nightly Margaritas with Huberts friend Susannah, over at Dos Hermanas. Make me wish I was back in New Mexico!
March 3, 2023
Review to come.
March 30, 2011
Our intrepid sleuth, Hubie is once again immersed in a murder mystery, this time involving pottery appraisals. Soon, we find ourselves in the midst of confusing identities and mysterious women. What will Hubie do? For one thing gather with Susannah at Dos Hermanas and figure this mess out with the aid of margaritas and chips with salsa!
If you enjoy solid mysteries filled with humor and the classics, treat yourself to this masterful novel.
If you enjoy solid mysteries filled with humor and the classics, treat yourself to this masterful novel.
April 20, 2017
Everybody's favorite pot thief, Hubert Schuze, is back, and, as usual, he's in trouble. Hubert has been hired to appraise a collection of pots for $2,500. But they want him to be blindfolded, both coming and going, and the person who drives him back takes his fee. Hubert doesn't take well to losing his money, so he works to get it back. But then a dead body is found, and Hubert is arrested for the murder. That's when things get dicy, and Hubert has to step up his game.
I love the Pot Thief books. For one thing it takes me to Albuquerque, a city that I love to visit. For another, I like Hubert, despite the fact he bends the law sometimes to get what he wants. He is intriguing, and lives a life that I might enjoy, if I could make pots and own a shop on the plaza.
These books would probably be best if read in order, and I'm happy I found them where there are quite a few out. When I finish one I download the next one, ready to see what Hubert is up to next.
I love the Pot Thief books. For one thing it takes me to Albuquerque, a city that I love to visit. For another, I like Hubert, despite the fact he bends the law sometimes to get what he wants. He is intriguing, and lives a life that I might enjoy, if I could make pots and own a shop on the plaza.
These books would probably be best if read in order, and I'm happy I found them where there are quite a few out. When I finish one I download the next one, ready to see what Hubert is up to next.
July 5, 2017
Review: THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED EINSTEIN
Perennial favorite artisan, shopkeeper, and pottery digger Hubert Schuze of Albuquerque returns. He's expanded his shop space, is hoping to sell his replicas of ancient pots, and is stuck reading a book on Einstein (the science, not the biography). When asked to appraise the pottery collection amassed by a reclusive collector, Hubie is eager, even if it includes being chauffeured blindfolded. What he couldn't have planned for, nor imagined, is finding the collection contains some of his replicas, the fee disappears, and he is framed for not one, but two murders, then targeted for his own death.
Perennial favorite artisan, shopkeeper, and pottery digger Hubert Schuze of Albuquerque returns. He's expanded his shop space, is hoping to sell his replicas of ancient pots, and is stuck reading a book on Einstein (the science, not the biography). When asked to appraise the pottery collection amassed by a reclusive collector, Hubie is eager, even if it includes being chauffeured blindfolded. What he couldn't have planned for, nor imagined, is finding the collection contains some of his replicas, the fee disappears, and he is framed for not one, but two murders, then targeted for his own death.
November 17, 2016
My delight in reading the Pot Thief books never fades. As I dive into each story, I find something cozy and familiar and yet full of surprises, a quality much like pot thief Hubie Schuze’s happy hour conversations over margaritas with his friend Susannah.
This book has the best opening I’ve read in years. It sets the tone, revealing Hubie’s sense of humor, while introducing the instigating event for the mystery immediately. “I was trying to remember if I’d ever been blindfolded before. I didn’t think I had, but the cloth over my eyes felt vaguely familiar, almost nostalgic. I couldn’t imagine why. The only images I could connect with blindfolds were kidnappings.”
Hubie is brought in this mysterious way to appraise a pot collection. In that collection, he finds something that shouldn’t be there. And the appraisal fee gets sneaked out of his pocket on the return trip. The lengths he goes to in order to get it back are clever (and illegal), and get him into trouble for something he didn’t do: kill the pot collector. Unexpected new romance comes out his attempts to sort out his situation.
Orenduff does something I’ve seen one other author do successfully (Martyn V. Halm, in his Amsterdam Assassin thriller series, which in all other ways is as different from the Pot Thief series as it could be, though just as good). He inserts interludes. These are short chapters which tell a story within the story, about a personal aspect of the main character’s life. These interludes are few, well-crafted and beautiful, revealing details about life in New Mexico and showing Hubie’s appreciation of old friends and of the place he lives. They aren’t unnecessary, though it may sound as if they are. The nature of these books is such that this is the pace. This is the personality. There is suspense, but it’s suspense from the point of view of a man who has some amusing opinions that he freely shares, and who savors the taste of life, from traditional New Mexican cooking and Gruet champagne, to friendships, the scenery on Sandia peak, and the unexpected companionship of a funny-looking dog.
As always, the story is full of fascinating information about what Hubie is studying. The book he’s reading on Einstein and quantum physics plays a key role in the plot and in his thinking, as he struggles to understand the uncertainty principle and figure out who really killed the pot collector.
If you haven’t started this series yet, begin at the beginning and make friends with Hubie in The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras
This book has the best opening I’ve read in years. It sets the tone, revealing Hubie’s sense of humor, while introducing the instigating event for the mystery immediately. “I was trying to remember if I’d ever been blindfolded before. I didn’t think I had, but the cloth over my eyes felt vaguely familiar, almost nostalgic. I couldn’t imagine why. The only images I could connect with blindfolds were kidnappings.”
Hubie is brought in this mysterious way to appraise a pot collection. In that collection, he finds something that shouldn’t be there. And the appraisal fee gets sneaked out of his pocket on the return trip. The lengths he goes to in order to get it back are clever (and illegal), and get him into trouble for something he didn’t do: kill the pot collector. Unexpected new romance comes out his attempts to sort out his situation.
Orenduff does something I’ve seen one other author do successfully (Martyn V. Halm, in his Amsterdam Assassin thriller series, which in all other ways is as different from the Pot Thief series as it could be, though just as good). He inserts interludes. These are short chapters which tell a story within the story, about a personal aspect of the main character’s life. These interludes are few, well-crafted and beautiful, revealing details about life in New Mexico and showing Hubie’s appreciation of old friends and of the place he lives. They aren’t unnecessary, though it may sound as if they are. The nature of these books is such that this is the pace. This is the personality. There is suspense, but it’s suspense from the point of view of a man who has some amusing opinions that he freely shares, and who savors the taste of life, from traditional New Mexican cooking and Gruet champagne, to friendships, the scenery on Sandia peak, and the unexpected companionship of a funny-looking dog.
As always, the story is full of fascinating information about what Hubie is studying. The book he’s reading on Einstein and quantum physics plays a key role in the plot and in his thinking, as he struggles to understand the uncertainty principle and figure out who really killed the pot collector.
If you haven’t started this series yet, begin at the beginning and make friends with Hubie in The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras
March 30, 2011
In the third book of the Pot Thief series, Hubert (Hubie) Schuze not only steals pots, but also a car and even a lady’s heart. All because someone stole the $2,500 he was paid to examine a collection of rare Anasazi pots.
Orenduff uses the New Mexico setting as an additional character, evincing the enchantment for which the state is known. I could feel the warm sun, the rough adobe walls and the crystallized salt on the edge of the Margarita glass. I also liked the women who people Schuze’s life and the way he treated them.
I haven’t read the first two mysteries in the series (yet!), but had no problem following Hubie’s story in this novel.
This book recently won the Lefty award for best humorous mystery of 2010 and I can totally understand why. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Even before the first Margarita of the evening.
I had the good fortune to be sitting at Michael’s table when he won the Lefty at Left Coast Crime in Santa Fe. The award was a dramatic Native American pot set on a plinth, the pot having been made at a pueblo where he and his lovely wife had worked years ago. Talk about serendipity. Hubie, the pot thief, would have loved it.
Orenduff uses the New Mexico setting as an additional character, evincing the enchantment for which the state is known. I could feel the warm sun, the rough adobe walls and the crystallized salt on the edge of the Margarita glass. I also liked the women who people Schuze’s life and the way he treated them.
I haven’t read the first two mysteries in the series (yet!), but had no problem following Hubie’s story in this novel.
This book recently won the Lefty award for best humorous mystery of 2010 and I can totally understand why. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Even before the first Margarita of the evening.
I had the good fortune to be sitting at Michael’s table when he won the Lefty at Left Coast Crime in Santa Fe. The award was a dramatic Native American pot set on a plinth, the pot having been made at a pueblo where he and his lovely wife had worked years ago. Talk about serendipity. Hubie, the pot thief, would have loved it.
August 3, 2011
Michael is a writer with a wonderful sense of humor. His books are the best for a good, fun time! I love his character, Hubie, who is "slightly" dishonest, but it doesn't really count because he has his reasons and in his mind, it isn't really theft if a serious anthropologist with an appreciation of ancient cultures "liberates" a few pots left buried in the ground for thousands of years. I appreciate the setting of his character's adventures in and around Albuquerque. Old Town is an under appreciated historical jewel, and I hope lots and lots of folks read these books and feel compelled to visit New Mexico and soak up the local history. I am impressed with the titles he chooses and the clever way he works them into the mystery. And the mysteries, by the way, are good puzzles. I've read two of the series so far, and I've had my brain fully engaged, but never figured it out! What a lovely treat!
I'm anxious to pick up the other two books (earlier in the series) and have another romping session with Hubie and his companions in Old Town Albuquerque!
I'm anxious to pick up the other two books (earlier in the series) and have another romping session with Hubie and his companions in Old Town Albuquerque!
September 10, 2016
This was the first book by this author I have read and it was a book club choice. It was so charming, such fun to read and utterly enjoyable and entertaining. The story takes place in Albuquerque, NM and I loved how he brought in certain Spanish words and plenty of descriptions of food that sounded so tasty it was difficult to read and not get hungry for good Mexican food. The main character is a dealer of Anasazi pottery, highly valuable, rare and ancient. He is rather quirky, not entirely ethical and very likable. The story contains mystery, murder, a little romance, a quirky dog and is peppered with amusing, crisp dialogue that kept me smiling. I think I will enjoy other Pot Thief books in the series.
January 24, 2011
I just finished this fantastic 3rd book by Mike Orenduff. I'll do my full review tomorrow. But I can tell you now, I'm looking forward to the next one with baited breath. His characters are funny, brash and totally believable.
December 6, 2012
Yet again, another Gruet guzzling, burrito eating, death-defying casserole surviving culinary tribute woven into the pages of a murder mystery. Oh! I forgot about the Pot Thieving! A fun riot of a read!
January 8, 2015
Always a fun read. I think the food descriptions are my favourite part - but the other incidental stuff about the Uncertainty Principle and Einstein as well as descriptions of Albuquerque and then the pots, the people and the Margaritas - so much to enjoy!
August 6, 2023
Hubert Schuze finds himself traveling blindfolded to a house where he's to conduct an appraisal of a collection of old pots - but some of them are copies he made for a mysterious customer. And then murder comes into the picture, and Hubie has to figure out who did it, and how, because the police think he did it.
It's not a complicated plot (though I couldn't figure out the puzzle, even though I've read the book several times - but then I gave up trying to solve the puzzle in a mystery decades ago), but it is fun. That's the whole point of the Pot Thief series. Though J. Michael Orenduff is a legitimate academic with an earned doctorate, he emphatically does not write at an elevated level. J. Vernon McGee used to say that in his Through the Bible series he put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everyone could reach them, and that's an apt description of these mysteries. They're fun, and for those who do try to figure out the puzzle they might be intriguing (I don't know - as I said, I don't try), but mostly they're fun. As I said, I've read this one before, along with the others, and I'll read it again.
It's not a complicated plot (though I couldn't figure out the puzzle, even though I've read the book several times - but then I gave up trying to solve the puzzle in a mystery decades ago), but it is fun. That's the whole point of the Pot Thief series. Though J. Michael Orenduff is a legitimate academic with an earned doctorate, he emphatically does not write at an elevated level. J. Vernon McGee used to say that in his Through the Bible series he put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everyone could reach them, and that's an apt description of these mysteries. They're fun, and for those who do try to figure out the puzzle they might be intriguing (I don't know - as I said, I don't try), but mostly they're fun. As I said, I've read this one before, along with the others, and I'll read it again.
September 11, 2017
This series is beginning to grow on me as I get to know the characters and the setting. Hubie may have some character deficiencies in how he earns his living, but he's an interesting guy who is aware of his own shortcomings, but can't seem to help himself when it comes to getting into trouble. In this one he goes to do an assessment of a pottery collection and ends up being accused of murder, not once, but twice. His usual sidekicks are around to help him out, plus it looks like he may be developing a love interest (to be determined in the next book I assume). His methods of working out "who done it" work for him, but he doesn't share many clues with the reader until the reveal. Still it's an entertaining way to spend a little time, and the descriptions of his meals are mouthwatering (if you like Mexican food as I do).
June 27, 2017
I can see why this book won an award for best humorous mystery. The Pot Thief mysteries are great. Set in New Mexico the protagonist is Hubert or Hubie Schuze, an anthropolpgy dropout from UNM who now owns a shop in Old Town Albuquerque selling Native American pottery and replicas made by Hubie. It's fun reading these literary mysteries. Hubie is always seeking new learning and applying it to solve the crimes. Einstein is the center of this one, the uncertainty principle is pondered by Hubie as well as Susannah, his best friend, over Margaritas at Dos Hermanas. There is always a bit of Agatha Christie in these books. It is such fun to follow along with Hubie's thought processes as he solves the crimes.
This book is part of a Trilogy. I plan to continue with another.
This book is part of a Trilogy. I plan to continue with another.
May 22, 2017
Not bad!
This is the first of this series that I've read. It was pretty good, with solid writing and decent characters. Set in the American Southwest, it's breezier and lighter than the Tony Hillerman books. The appeal lies in the protagonist and his adventures, set in the world of collectors of ancient (Anasazi) pots. (By the way, the use of the term "Anasazi" is problematical for that culture. It comes from their enemies the Navajo, and means loosely "alien (or enemy) ancestors". "Basket People" is a more accurate term for the culture.)
This is the first of this series that I've read. It was pretty good, with solid writing and decent characters. Set in the American Southwest, it's breezier and lighter than the Tony Hillerman books. The appeal lies in the protagonist and his adventures, set in the world of collectors of ancient (Anasazi) pots. (By the way, the use of the term "Anasazi" is problematical for that culture. It comes from their enemies the Navajo, and means loosely "alien (or enemy) ancestors". "Basket People" is a more accurate term for the culture.)
August 20, 2017
So far I have enjoyed this series. I live in NM so the places and foods are familiar to me and nice to see in a novel. There isn't a lot of sex or gore but there is a decent murder mystery to solve. It's a very easy read though there are always interesting topics of science or philosophy brought up.
August 12, 2017
It was OK for an afternoon read but I will not rush to read another in this series.
August 16, 2017
cute little mystery. Didn't have to think too much. Perfect for summer reading while sitting on the beach, at the pool, etc. I'd probably read a few more of his books..
July 3, 2019
Albuquerque, NM set funny mystery - winner of the Lefty Award.
August 11, 2019
Odd little book set in Albuquerque. Saw it on a shelf in a small bookshop. Local author. Just a whodunit. But set in New Mexico with local cultural and historical touches.
November 19, 2019
Fun series about NM
March 23, 2020
Light, fun read. I like Albuquerque, tidbits of history and literature, and his sense of humor.
July 20, 2020
Good Plot and Good Writing
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2023
Not my favorite.
June 20, 2025
plenty of pots - tiny bit of Einstein
A fun read. Lots of info about food. Hubert does a lot of cooking. And has a couple of dates.
A fun read. Lots of info about food. Hubert does a lot of cooking. And has a couple of dates.
September 9, 2025
The books are good, but after three, they are starting to get predictable. I hope the fourth one surprises me.
November 11, 2025
Another good entry into this quixotic and humorous series. We continue to learn a great deal about New Mexico and Native American pottery, both historic and contemporary.
June 14, 2026
Dn like this at all…
October 5, 2026
Another fun read in this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews