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The Lockpicker
Jake Ahn, burglar and jewel thief, gets involved in a burglary in Seattle that turns violent when his partner tries to doublecross him. Escaping to San Francisco, Jake looks up his brother, Eugene, and finds himself in the middle of Eugene's marital and career problems, while gradually becoming attracted to Eugene's wife, Rachel. The brothers' painful memories of their childhoods are awakened with this visit, while Jake eventually turns back to his criminal pursuits, and involves Rachel. Meanwhile, Jake's ex-partner continues his search for Jake, and the result is a violent convergence of events.
- GenresThriller
365 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 17, 2017
A fast, gripping story. Meticulous about lockpicking and criminal sleuthing. I enjoyed this book. It took me completely away into another mindset and world. I found it totally refreshing that the main character is Asian American. YAY!
October 16, 2020
I like to throw a spotlight on crime novels that don’t get the attention they deserve. And one such novel is probably my favorite novel of 2017: THE LOCKPICKER by Leonard Chang. Chang is the author of several books I haven’t read yet, and he works as a writer and producer on the F/X channel series SNOWFALL, which is about the origins of the crack-cocaine epidemic in the early 1980s.
THE LOCKPICKER is the story of Jake Ahn, a young career jewel thief. A burglary he commits with a volatile new associate in Seattle goes violently wrong, and he winds up fleeing to San Francisco with the loot to lay low with his brother. The brother is a techbro-type whose career is going sideways along with his marriage, and Jake finds himself falling hard for his soon-to-be ex-sister-in-law, who finds herself drawn to Jake’s criminal side. Meanwhile, the associate isn’t quite as dead as Jake thinks he is, and as he’s prepared to scorch the earth in his quest for revenge.
What distinguishes this novel is the details. THE LOCKPICKER is no high-octane thriller that formulaically drifts from chase to shootout to sexcapade. No, it takes the time to study the minutiae of the lockpicker’s trade, and I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who really geeks out on the details of crime. For instance, I love heist stories that are all about the grappling hooks and stopwatches and abandoned warehouses and black turtlenecks.
In THE LOCKPICKER, you’ll learn all about rake picks and snapping picks and tension bars and tumblers. You’ll learn how to tell good jewelry from junk, and how stolen goods are fenced, and how, step by step, to track down someone who doesn’t want to be tracked down. Every detail is as delicious as the glint of light off a genuine diamond. I don’t know how Leonard Chang came by this unimpeachable authority over the little things, but it’s impressive in a way you don’t often see in a lot of crime fiction, which often glosses over the details to get to scenes of high conflict.
But more than a criminal study, THE LOCKPICKER is a deep character study. Leonard Chang makes a lot of room for flawed, fully dimensional characters with intriguing weaknesses and even more intriguing backstories. You won’t find a single crime-fiction trope or cliché in THE LOCKPICKER, nor will you find a single false step in the plausibility of its plotting. It’s a novel that honors its ambitions without every putting the plot of pause. It is, in short, an all-but-perfect piece of story craft, and I cannot recommend THE LOCKPICKER highly enough.
THE LOCKPICKER is the story of Jake Ahn, a young career jewel thief. A burglary he commits with a volatile new associate in Seattle goes violently wrong, and he winds up fleeing to San Francisco with the loot to lay low with his brother. The brother is a techbro-type whose career is going sideways along with his marriage, and Jake finds himself falling hard for his soon-to-be ex-sister-in-law, who finds herself drawn to Jake’s criminal side. Meanwhile, the associate isn’t quite as dead as Jake thinks he is, and as he’s prepared to scorch the earth in his quest for revenge.
What distinguishes this novel is the details. THE LOCKPICKER is no high-octane thriller that formulaically drifts from chase to shootout to sexcapade. No, it takes the time to study the minutiae of the lockpicker’s trade, and I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who really geeks out on the details of crime. For instance, I love heist stories that are all about the grappling hooks and stopwatches and abandoned warehouses and black turtlenecks.
In THE LOCKPICKER, you’ll learn all about rake picks and snapping picks and tension bars and tumblers. You’ll learn how to tell good jewelry from junk, and how stolen goods are fenced, and how, step by step, to track down someone who doesn’t want to be tracked down. Every detail is as delicious as the glint of light off a genuine diamond. I don’t know how Leonard Chang came by this unimpeachable authority over the little things, but it’s impressive in a way you don’t often see in a lot of crime fiction, which often glosses over the details to get to scenes of high conflict.
But more than a criminal study, THE LOCKPICKER is a deep character study. Leonard Chang makes a lot of room for flawed, fully dimensional characters with intriguing weaknesses and even more intriguing backstories. You won’t find a single crime-fiction trope or cliché in THE LOCKPICKER, nor will you find a single false step in the plausibility of its plotting. It’s a novel that honors its ambitions without every putting the plot of pause. It is, in short, an all-but-perfect piece of story craft, and I cannot recommend THE LOCKPICKER highly enough.
January 22, 2020
Another crime novel. I rate it somewhat better than the book by James Lee Burke that I just read. The protagonist, Jake, is a survivor of parental abuse who has grown up to be a fairly successful burglar. The book begins with him deciding to lay low for awhile, staying with his brother, Eugene, a techie in San Francisco whose carefully planned traditional life is beginning to fall apart. The pace of the book is measured and rather low-key until toward the end. A lot of space is used to describe Jake's skill at lock-picking and the meticulous care he applies to planning a "job," which is rather interesting. Looking back, however, what I enjoyed most was comparing the two brothers, their personalities and how they responded to the violence of their childhood, with very different goals in life and particularly contrasting attitudes toward risk.
June 1, 2018
Edgy book; not really my type of mystery but continued to read it to find out how it ends ( I am not the type just to read the last chapter). HOWEVER, I wish I was because the ending was totally unsatisfying and I felt I had wasted my time by finishing it.
February 12, 2018
A fast paced thriller. The anti-hero does not redeem himself in the end. Great details on lock picking, hope it’s not 100% accurate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews