Thieves Like Us

by Robert Edmond Alter

Cheops' daughter, the story goes, earned the money for her pyramid by practicing what was even then the Oldest Profession. Her price had been one stone per man. She built a pretty big pyramid. Many centuries later, beautiful Greta Brandt also made some fancy burial plans -- but they were for her husband Farley, who wasn't dead yet. And until he was, Greta intended to leave no stone unturned. Then she met Dave Ferris, a young an not-too-scrupulous archaeologist, who could be bought for the price of bail. And although he was a new hand at Greta's game, he was learning fast...and he was not made of stone.

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Robert Edmond Alter is remembered chiefly for two novels, paperback originals from the 1960s: "Swamp Sister" (1961) and "Carny Kill" (1966). He also wrote children's novels and sold stories to some of the top magazines of his day, including the "Saturday Evening Post" and "Argosy". Alter died suddenly at the age of 40 (some sources state it was Cancer). Some of his later works were published for the first time many years after his death. He was survived by his wife, Maxine and his daughter Sand.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Edmond Alter never disappoints. Whether it be one of his few novels such as Thieves Like Us or his many short stories. This one follows American tomb raiders in Egypt in the late 60s. A woman whose husband's government-sanctioned expedition to find a lost tomb, hires one of the crew, the narrator, to kill her husband.

The protagonist soon realizes that he is not the first man she has approached for the same purpose.

This novel was published posthumously after Alter's untimely death in 1965.