Just Thieves

by Gregory Galloway

Just Thieves is a down and dirty gem of a tale, a twisty and twisted crime novel that evokes the worlds of George V. Higgins, Patricia Highsmith, and David Mamet. Rick and Frank are recovering addicts and accomplished house thieves whose partnership extends beyond their professional lives. They do not steal randomly - - they steal according to order, hired by a mysterious handler who assigns the work to them. The jobs run routinely until they're tasked with breaking into a home and taking a seemingly worthless trophy: an object that generates interest and obsession out of proportion to its apparent value.

Just as the robbery is completed, the two are involved in a freak car accident that sets off a chain of events and Frank disappears with the trophy. As Rick tries to find Frank, and the missing haul, he is forced to confront his past, upending both his livelihood and his sense of reality. The narrative builds steadily into a powerful and satisfyingly shocking climax. Reveling in its con-artistry and double-crosses, Just Thieves is a nail-biting, eerily existential and noirish exploration of the working lives of two unforgettable crooks and the hidden forces that rule and ruin their lives.

Genres: Noir, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2021

About the author

Gregory Galloway received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His first novel, As Simple As Snow, was a recipient of the Alex Award.

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Available now!

"We were thieves...We never stole anything for ourselves. It was all strictly by request. We were small timers with small jobs. I'd been doing it for a while before I met Frank, but business was better once he joined." Rick would case out the target property, observe the comings and goings of the residents. Frank would assess alarms or surveillance systems. They were personal procurement specialists hired by Froehmer, the go between or fence, as a "grab and go" team. Once the item requested was procured and surrendered to Froehmer, they were paid. They scraped by.

Rick's dad had been a white collar crook, a building inspector who took kickbacks and bribes. He and Froehmer were friends. On two separate occasions, Froehmer paid for Rick's drug rehab at a treatment center. "Froehmer might have done it but not without strings. [Rick] was a name in the pad with a debt in the next column." According to Rick, "Froehmer was doing all right by me so far...I'd take the small things handed to me...Frank was a smart guy who could think through anything-take it apart-put it back together in his mind-until he figured it out. It had helped us get at stuff no one thought we could...Frank and I live[d] from job to job making more money than most...we scrape[d] by in a one-bedroom apartment."

The next job Froehmer floated was a time sensitive, quick grab job out of town. Hotel and car rental were fully paid up front. Double the usual pay offered. The coveted item, a sentimental, cheap silver animal trophy. Four blocks from the heist, a car collision ensued. No replacement rental car was available necessitating an additional overnight stay. In the morning, both Frank and the bag containing the trophy were gone. Rick would scour the unfamiliar city looking for Frank and the stolen trophy. He was determined to find Frank. Is there such a thing as simple theft, stealing enough to never get caught, lifting only what one could get away with? They were not burglars who kept ill-gotten gains. Froehmer awaited delivery of the poached item and the team would not disappoint. Rick, however, did not count on mayhem, disappearances and snowballing violence. Was there a way out, a way to leave this life behind?

"Just Thieves" by Gregory Galloway is a gritty crime novel allowing the reader to enter the world of two fictional former addicts, turned house thieves, who lifted requested goods for their handler. Past misdeeds and mistakes have led them to this path. Collateral damage will follow. A highly recommended read!

Thank you Melville House Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[David Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reads like it’s shallow but has great depth. It masquerades as commercial fiction and yet violates many precepts most often found in commercial fiction. While reading it I loved it and at the same time wanted to put it down. I have no memory of a book working on me like this, the sign of a unique, interesting read. This book is going to stay with me for a long time.
There is symbolism, pronoun confusion, and subtle story telling that kept this reader on his toes. The story is told in first person yet in a distant voice. The narrator is unreliable and an obvious sociopath who doesn’t show emotions. The structure is mostly exposition with paragraphs that span entire pages. There are extra words that normally would be edited but go toward voice. There are descriptions of items that are nondescriptions. The sense of place is conspicuous in its absence. This book is filled with contradictions and the prose has to be heeded closely to pick up the depth of this work. I usually read for the “fictive dream,” it’s not present in this story and yet I will be first in line to buy his next one. Don’t pick this book expecting an easy read. This one makes you think every step of the way.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.

[Jayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Just Thieves" was "Just So-So".

This character-driven noir story about two male thieves boasted a compelling premise:

Two male thieves profess their love for each other and work together until one thief pulls a "mysterious disappearance".

What happened to this missing thief?

And what happened to the stolen bounty?

I listened to the audiobook and throughout the entire book, I was very underwhelmed.

Perhaps because only one robbery was showcased?

Yes, I wanted more!

Narrator L.J. Ganser did a superb job with the narration and that's what kept me from pressing the stop button.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been quite a few novels recently attempting to recreate the atmosphere of the classic days of noir. All get my attention, though usually fall flat when I get to them. So this was a pleasant surprise, perhaps as the action is second place to the personal turmoil of the protagonists.
Rick and Frank, a pair of low-level crooks and recovering addicts, are on an out-of-town job in an unnamed American city. Rick, who narrates, manages to break into the target house and find the small statue that he's been instructed to steal. Though the escape vehicle that Frank is driving crashes, the pair manage to make it to their seedy hotel…but this is noir, so their moments of calm are short, dirty work is still afoot.
The plot is perfectly sound, though the ending rather ordinary, but the characterisation is strong.
This is something of a homage to the classics, as Galloway borrows lines from some of the most well-known crime novels and screenplays and weaves them into his narrative; a dangerous move if you don’t do your own thing well, but fortunately he does.

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a novel and not only have no idea not just whether the novel works but even what the novel is about, and all you have in the end is the experience of having tried to figure these things out and wondering not only what you've missed, but whether there was anything TO miss.

I've read JUST THIEVES twice, and I honestly could not, by the end of the second reading, offer a cogent summary of it. It would be something like, "Okay, there were these two guys who broke into people's houses, and they love each other, I guess, but they're not gay, I don't think, and then one of them is killed, and the other assumes some kind of burden or debt or something that the other left behind, and there's a boss, and there's a guy under him, and our guys seems to have gotten crosswise with one or both of these guys, and they want him to kill people as well as break into houses, but I'm not sure why or who, and finally he kills one of the guys, and ... yeah."

That, honestly, is the best I can come up with when it comes to JUST THIEVES. I can say that it's written pretty well, and that it maintains a consistent tone, and that it started out feeling like the kind of moody, interior, character-driven noir story I especially like, but there just didn't seem to be enough exteriority to give things a sense of balance, and reading the rest of the book felt like I'd lost MY balance and couldn't trust a single step I was taking or any attempt to interpret any of those steps.

I'm willing to accept that this is entirely my problem, and not that of the novel or its author. Sometimes a reader and a novel don't connect; it's like going on a date with someone good-looking but having so little chemistry that you can't even be attracted to their looks. I know other people did make that connection, and that's why I gave JUST THIEVES a second go. But I was unable to penetrate its mind fog on a second journey through it. Maybe that's because I'm just not mentally wired to navigate the thickets of unreliable narrators. Assuming our unnamed narrator is unreliable. Which I can't assume.

I give three stars to any book that does what it sets out to do, and I can't honestly say it didn't do that. But it's also entirely possible that JUST THIEVES is a one-star read or a five-star read. I really wish I knew.

[Karan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very well written and tells a sad story about life and reality. It asks questions like how much do we really know people, how much do we think for ourselves or accept what's handed to us to believe? I'm not sure I loved this book, but it was impossible to stop reading until I knew the ending. I don't feel it has ended, I think there may be more to come and I can only hope for a better outcoe for the good people.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blech. Just enough oomph to get you from one page to the next, but this is a rather plodding, pleasureless attempt at some kind of noir, I guess. Lots of tough guy talking, some tough guy acting, all in The interest of ultimate stakes that are not at all entertaining or interesting once they are finally revealed.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank glaubte weder an Zufälle noch an Glückskekse, aber an schlechte Omen. Als ein Pferd vor dem Hotel liegt, in dem er mit Icherzähler Rick für einen speziellen Auftrag abgestiegen ist, konnte die Angelegenheit nur gehörig danebengehen. Der mutterlos aufgewachsene Rick war als Kleinkrimineller von seinem Vater praktisch an den Auftraggeber Froehmer vererbt worden, der dafür sorgte, dass Rick ihm stets etwas schuldete und an die Knechtschaft gebunden blieb. Dass Rick und Frank neuerdings zu zweit arbeiten, konfrontiert Rick damit, dass Frank über allerlei Nerdwissen verfügt, sowie deutlich vorsichtiger und exakter arbeitet als er. Dazu gehört, dass Frank nie alles preisgibt und stets einen Trumpf auf der Hand behält. Froehmer lässt für seine Aufträge jeweils ein Objekt von Rick beobachten, der erstattet Bericht und erfährt erst dann von Froehmer, was er aus dem Gebäude zu beschaffen hat. Was man nicht weiß, kann man nicht verraten.

Am spannendsten fand ich den Einstieg in den Roman, während ich darauf wartete, mehr über die Beziehung zwischen dem stets grübelnden Rick, Frank und Froehmer zu erfahren. Frank hatte u. a. als Lehrer gearbeitet und Rick bei seiner ehrenamtlichen Tätigkeit mit Klienten während deren Entziehungskur getroffen. Wo in Froehmers Hierarchie war Frank einzuordnen, war er Ricks Liebhaber, Mentor oder einfach ein Ganove in Alltagskleidung? Als es Frank offenbar an den Kragen geht, muss Rick sich eingestehen, dass sein Boss eine komplizierte Nebenwelt konstruiert hat, in der er selbst als Verlierer vorgesehen ist. Die Handlung kommt mit zahlreichen Rückblenden vom Hundertsten ins Tausendste, ehe das Pferd vor dem Hotel am Ende perfekt den Handlungsbogen schließt.

Fazit
„Die Verpflichtung“ liest sich als rasanter Mix aus Krimi, Liebesgeschichte und Whodunit und dreht sich um Sucht, Regeln und Ordnung, stellt Jon Bassoff im (wie stets bei polar) informativen Nachwort fest. Wer sich für die Psychologie krimineller Strukturen interessiert, sollte hier zugreifen.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick is a career thief and the narrator of this noir novel in which the screws keep being tightened on him as he’s manipulated in ways he doesn’t understand and is not even always aware of. Rick comes by his dishonesty honestly (ahem); his father was a bribe-taking building inspector. After Rick’s father dies (his mother had died years earlier), Rick needs some help with a sticky personal situation and turns to Froehmer, a long-time pal and crony of his father, also heavily involved in criminality. In exchange for his assistance, Froehmer draws Rick into thievery of gradually increasing complexity. Rick acquires a partner in crime, Frank, who’s technically adept and a whiz at disabling alarm systems and such. The two men become increasingly close as they continue thieving together for several years. Then Frank disappears after the theft of what seems a very valueless and meaningless item, and as Rick frantically tries to find Frank, Froehmer becomes increasingly menacing and Rick is getting boxed into a corner.

[John McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is set in an unknown corner of the United States, where a career thief and down-and- outer named “Rick” learned dishonesty from his father, a crooked building inspector. When his girlfriend, Denise, gives birth to a baby girl, she and Rick split the sheets. Not a very good father, with problems of his own, Rick doesn’t like the new man in Denise’s—and his daughter’s—lives, not because he’s hung up on his old girlfriend . . . but because he’s a drug addict.

Rick seeks help from a shady character known only as “Froehmer,” a longtime friend of his father, who soon takes care of the problem. No more druggie. Froehmer also fronts the money to put Rick through rehab, where he kicks his habit. In order to pay him back, Rick steals tools, equipment and supplies from construction sites on demand for Froehmer, who appears to be the spider at the center of a web of deceit, crime and mayhem. And surprise! Rick’s good at it. He soon graduates to stealing items on demand in an ever-widening sphere of crimes influenced by the arch-criminal. The burglaries become more and more sophisticated and Rick acquires a partner named Frank, who’s adept with locks, burglar alarms and electronic devices. But eventually the screws get tightened on the hapless thief, a murder occurs, and things start looking grim for the guy who seems to be the perfect dupe. This is a surprising and racy novel with superior characterization and a surprising plot. It’ll keep readers guessing to the very last page.

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 5 out of 5]

We’re all born thieves. At least that’s what Rick, a professional thief and the narrator of Gregory Galloway’s compelling, philosophical thriller, JUST THIEVES, believes. “Eve and the apple and all that…businessmen, inventors, and artists steal any and everything,” he thinks. “We all steal something; it’s the way we are.” From that point of view, Rick and his partner in crime, Frank, are just small-time players operating at the edges of a vast, theft-based economy.

Rick and Frank are recovering addicts who work for a shadowy man named Froehmer, a quasi-father figure to Rick. Froehmer hires the pair to filch odd items from unsuspecting victims --- rare sneakers, a painting, a “horrible” piece of pottery worth more than $20,000. When the book opens, they’re in an unnamed city, preparing to stake out a home in order to steal a small trophy, which is this blatantly noir-ish novel’s equivalent of the Maltese Falcon. The “thing,” as Rick calls it, looks like just another piece of worthless junk to him, but it turns out to have a lot of value to a number of people, all of whom are willing to go to great lengths to get their hands on it. (Galloway holds out on revealing what exactly the thing is until near the book’s end, when one character, in a twist on Sam Spade’s famous line, bluntly describes it as “the stuff that *ssholes are made of.”)

JUST THIEVES starts off slowly. Rick and Frank kill time in their hotel room and sit around in parked cars, eating Chinese takeout as they wait for the right time to make their move. Galloway carefully doles out details about Rick’s background and his relationship with his father, a crooked city official who was friendly with Froehmer, and his past with Frank, a former teacher who unwinds by reading Plato and Tacitus. But the tension ratchets up considerably around the book’s halfway mark, as Rick embarks on an increasingly violent quest to figure out exactly what went wrong with his last job --- and who’s responsible.

As Rick’s story unfolds, what emerges is a darkly elegant homage to the hard-boiled crime novels of Chandler, Cain and Macdonald --- a smart, suspenseful tale that asks us to consider what we owe, and what we take from, those around us. The book is peppered with nods to the works of those and other authors (ranging from Jean Genet to Patricia Highsmith), as well as to classic noirs such as The Killers and Double Indemnity, all scrupulously cited at the novel’s end.

“The machinery had started to move and nothing could stop it,” Rick thinks as the book barrels toward its conclusion, echoing the words of the doomed insurance salesman Walter Neff in the latter film. Galloway returns repeatedly to that idea of Rick being caught up in the machinery of a corrupt, exploitative system behind his understanding or control. At one point, he falls out of Froehmer’s favor and is sent to work off his debt in a sprawling warehouse where “they st​​ored the sh*t that people sent back” and where he and the other employees are “all small, silent cogs in an enormous machine.”

After Rick gets home from his job driving around on his forklift, picking up other people’s trash, he reflects on a conversation with Frank, one that makes the novel’s political position crystal clear. “We’re all crooks,” Rick recalls telling his partner. “Because we’re capitalists.” For Frank, the rot goes back to America’s founding; it’s part of the country’s DNA. “They stole land, then they stole people to work on the land,” he says. “It was all baked in from the beginning, from before the beginning.” Rick might be a thief, but he’s just playing the same game as everyone else.

Reviewed by Megan Elliott

[M. Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out fairly entertaining with the sudden appearance of a dead horse on the sidewalk outside a hotel and then died a slow, uninteresting death itself as many of its characters died various slow and quick uninteresting deaths themselves. I suppose part of the storytelling approach is to let the reader experience some of the chaos and wanderings of a drug-addled paranoid criminal mind, but if that was the idea, I feel the approach went a little too far at the expense of a coherent plot and motivation for me to see the story through.

I think my biggest problem with this book is that I couldn't make myself care what happened. People committed petty crimes, wandered in, wandered out, went on extended soul-searching mental side trips and spent a lot of time doing very little. Then they committed not so petty crimes, wandered in, wandered out, etc. There seemed to be a lot of hijinx around the theft of a statue of - what was it, a goat? - which seemed to be very valuable for some reason that never really became clear and in the end seemed to be mostly forgotten.

I really got the feeling that the author started out with a few good ideas for plot points and, as many authors do, found himself bogged down in a trap of his own making with no real plan on how to find his way out. From there, various plot formulas seem to have been applied to try to jumpstart the story but were given up on before they bore fruit in favor of the next plot formula. The result is a lurching, somewhat confusing, and overall unsatisfying journey through bad life decisions and regrets that never really seemed to resolve themselves. It felt like it was moving towards something profound and life changing, but it never arrived there. It just wandered around reacting to things, mostly in ways that got the characters into the situations they were in in the first place.

By the end, it seemed like the author was just pushing to get the word count high enough to satisfy the editor and publisher and as soon as it was reached, he breathed a sigh of relief (as did I) and wound things down as quickly as possible.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant casually erudite noir thriller at once perfectly on point for the genre and radically contemporary. Frankly it seemed like the kind of novel you find and love after the author (who you somehow never heard of) has won a major international literary award…

[Matthew Eisenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just Thieves is okay. It's pretty slow, and I felt nothing for any of the characters.

Bottom line—There are enough good-to-great books out there to skip this one.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title Just Thieves is obviously a play on words central to this fascinating noir novel. "Just" as in "only" thieves, which is how our unnamed narrator rationalizes making his living by stealing, with his partner, specific items commanded by his handler, Froehmer, in exchange for money - or to pay off debts. And "just" as in righteous, as if somehow the people being ripped off are deserving of that treatment. The narrator works with his partner (in life as well as business), Frank. Frank and our narrator met at an AA meeting, both having had drug issues, and the idea of addiction is central to Just Thieves. Addiction to drugs, and addiction to a way of life that our narrator was perhaps doomed to follow based on his relationship with his father and his father's boss, the same mysterious, cold-blooded Froehmer. There's a lot going on here and it's an entertaining, thought-provoking read, and if the ending is a little anti-climactic, we still are left with a richly observed look at (as with all noir) this dark world.

[Justin Labelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Our lives are shaped more by the things we can’t control than those we can. We are worked on by the world, not the other way around. All we can do is react’ (8)

In Just Kids, there’s a scene where Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe walk in a park in disheveled clothes. There is an older couple that happens to be walking near them and, upon seeing Robert and Patti, the older lady excitedly states to her husband, ‘look, artists!’. His response is dismissive, ‘no dear, they’re not artists, they’re Just Kids’.
This, in a direct and didactic way, reminds the reader that appearances are deceiving. Patti and Robert are young, if memory serves correct, not even in their twenties yet and though they are aspiring artists, they have yet to create anything of ‘merit’. However, they have already started talking, discussing and dissecting what it will take to be or become artists. Though they are still ‘kids’, they are so much more than that. They have dreams and histories, experiences and traumas, whims and aspirations, loves and new flames…It is with this incident that Smith prepares her readers for her life story and gently reminds people that we are much more than our exterior selves. We can and are all too often two or more things simultaneously. You could even say life is never really composed of ‘just’ a single thing. Therein lies the joy of living, of loving, of making art….
Just Thieves reminds us of all of this. You could even argue that much of the novel, in a roundabout way, humanizes the outer edges of society. It reminds us that the world is made of gray tones, of in-betweens. Nothing is clearly good or evil, right or wrong, necessary or superfluous. The world is complicated, odd and quickly becomes what you, as a human being, choose to make of it. Think David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water speech. The choice comes down to where you want to place your thoughts, your energy, your time…
The novel also focuses on another oft repeated theme that is nonetheless true. You’re either working towards realizing your dreams or working towards realizing someone else’s. Just Thieves takes this concept and divides it and subdivides it into a sort of motto for all of the choices we make in life, be they conscious or unconscious. We take a step towards making ourselves happy or we take a step for others at the cost of our own happiness…
Rick and Frank are thieves. They’re recovering drug addicts. They’re friends, probable lovers and also much more than all that. They are a combination of options accepted or rejected. They are not simply good people gone bad, or bad people trying to make good. They are humans in all of their complexity. They are people who have made choices, are making choices and have had choices made for them. They live and adapt accordingly.
Yes, they are thieves. They steal from other people and though they attempt to work within a fixed code, life gets in the way. Yes there is machismo and hierarchy but there is also staunch opposition to these same things. Rick and Frank’s lives are composed of making the best of things and planning for the worst. Looking forward to a simpler life. This, the style of life they live, is something of a pit stop along the way to something of greater value, to something of deeper meaning, of more importance. They look forward to a daily life consisting of something other than theft and in the end they read and talk and discuss important topics because they are, after all, more than just thieves.
Their conversations are about daily life and about how to live it. Minor achievements are shared and sober days celebrated.
Were I to describe the book in relation to a movie, I would explain it as a prolonged take on the dinner scene in Reservoir Dogs but with the mood of Ride The Pink Horse.

Some of my favourite lines:

‘Most days are nothing more than barely contained accidents’ (8)
‘Tomorrow is a different day. We don’t know anything about tomorrow. We only know about today.’(60)
‘Stuff that has value can be replaced… A house, a car, money. Almost anything you can buy, you can buy again. But sentimental stuff, family stuff, ex-girlfriend stuff, your friend’s first drawing whatever means something that no one would care about but you, that’s the stuff that’s worth the most.Think about it. Think about it. If you could only take one thing in the world with you, what would it be?’ (62)
‘In the end…People don’t really care about how it turned out for you. I mean, some people might be happy, and some other people might be mad, or jealous, or whatever. But in the end, they don’t really care one way or the other. They only care about themselves. So if they don’t care, if it doesn’t really matter, why play by the rules? If they don’t care, why should we?’ (67)

People think the world doesn't make sense(...)Only because it isn't the world they want' (87)
I wasn't going to let them take anything again. And if I didn't have anything, there was nothing to take, nothing to lose (92)
It's hard to sit at a bar and not hate yourself. I sort of feel that's why they were built the way they are, a long lien of sturdy wood to accommodate a row of people, who all feel alone, even if they're with someone else, and a big mirror right there in front of them to remind them how truly alone and miserable they are. I was miserable enough, but I wanted a reminder.(95)
There's nothing lonelier than a long drive in a half-empty car, except a long night in a half empty bed (101)
Sometimes that's enough (...) Or maybe it has nothing to do with it. It's hard to tell sometimes. Sometimes you never know. (124)
Maybe you know different than I do. All I know is that he wasn't always a good person, but he was trying to be a better one. You can't ask for much more than that (127)
Theft can be a moral action, not Robin Hood, but a more existential act. No owns owns anything, it all simply passes through our hands. (130)
Think about all the changes you've already made, the different people you've been in your life, think about the person you were before you started using, think about the person you were when you were using-the person you were with your friends (...) You were lots of different people, changing from one to the other depending on who you were with and how you need to act. Sometimes you changed from one person to another in a matter of seconds. I bet I was ten different people on any given day (139)
Everybody gets caught in the end; everything ends in tragedy, one way or another. No one can avoid it (142)
There's satisfaction in repetition, consolation and comfort in routine. You take the same path at the same time every day and you start to notice the patterns, the way the dears work, silently and efficiently, unnoticed mostly (144)

[Carey Calvert · Rating 5 out of 5]

You couldn’t argue with their success.

Recovering addicts Rick and Frank had never been caught.

They were thieves who stole anything: paintings, cars, coins, guns, houseplants. It didn’t matter.

Small-timers with small jobs who never stole for themselves.

It was all strictly by request.

… and relapse is still recovery.

Existential exploration becomes thought-provoking and masterfully woven manifesto that implicates a corrupt yet addicting worldview in Gregory Galloway’s (As Simple as Snow) subtle, yet powerful JUST THIEVES.

Take enough. But never more than that.

People steal for all sorts of reasons: desperation, opportunity, revenge, jealousy.

Rick learned from his father, who wasn’t necessarily a thief but corrupt.

“You can’t get greedy. Take a little but still do your job, and nobody cares. It’s the guys who take too much that get themselves into trouble.”

Rick’s father is dead now. But Rick has always had a stand in by the name of Froehmer: think DiCaprio (or Matt Damon) and Nicholson in The Departed, a man whom Rick’s father visited often, and brought Rick along when Rick was a kid.

This connection may tip off what you may consider the end. But you’d be terribly wrong.

Like Hunter Thompson said, “In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

Thieves respect property.

Maybe more than anyone else. They respect it so much that they want it for themselves so they can better, perfectly respect it.

"But we don’t keep it."

I guess we respect it so much, we want someone else to appreciate it as much as we do.

Frank could walk into a bakery and walk out with twenty loaves, unnoticed. He had that kind of face. Good looking without standing out. And business was better when Frank joined.

The world is a trap, and the better you understand how the trap is made, the better you can avoid it.

And when a caper goes wrong and the thing that needed to be stolen doesn’t get stolen, they set the traps for you, then blame you for getting caught.

People who have everything fighting over nothing.

Perhaps the world was designed to create addicts. Create a stressful environment and then insist you buy the relief from the stress, whether it’s alcohol, six, tv, food, drugs, shopping.

Binge watching, binge eating, binge shopping, all of it marketed and celebrated, and then denigrated for those who get addicted to it.

It’s in our culture, our identity. We wouldn’t be Americans without it.

Everybody steals. We have to steal.

“I can stop anytime I want.”

Spoken like a true addict.

Whenever somebody’s got more than somebody else, there’s stealing, and whenever there’s stealing there’s going to be killing.

“Let’s get out before it comes to that.”

Because it will come.

[Duncan Beattie (Fiction From Afar) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in an unnamed American Town, Just Thieves tells the story of two house burglars who steal on order. Told in past tense from the perspective of Rick, the story follows their accomplished partnership as they complete successive jobs on request of their handler Froehmer, while also chartering through his own family background, his struggles with addiction and his eventual encounter with fellow addict Frank.
Never knowing whether the items they were stealing where for Froehmer's own use or then passed on to another party, Rick relays some of the scrapes he initially found himself in before bringing in the meticulous planning Frank to the operation. The latter would successfully create multiple identities for the thieves and consider potential unfolding scenarios, leaving almost nothing to chance. The narrative expansively articulates how they they would start to complement each other professionally and also personally in a very understated manner.
When they are charged to do a rare out of town job, Rick and Frank plan ahead to reduce the risks of working in an unfamiliar location, including renting a car and hotel room. They have been asked to thieve an apparently worthless trophy. The task appears straight forward yet there is a foreboding incident at the hotel before they begin their job; then they are required to separate immediately afterwards due to a minor car accident. Shortly afterwards Rick is then unable to contact Frank and has to investigate his presence and the reason for his disappearance.
This sets up the second part of the story where Rick has to dig back into his own history, losing his parents, the breakdown regular access to his daughter and reestablishing contact with one of his late father's associates, the mysterious Froehmer. A midpaced and slow burning story with a key theme of loss, Rick begins to get to know more of Frank's back story as he tries to fill the void his absence has left. You are drawn to the lead character as his losses are touching even though some of the actions he carries out would not normally evoke sympathy in the reader. Galloway has crafted a deep and sensitive chronical which at times is sparse enough to leave some degree of interpretation. It is a very effective slice of American noir where double crossing and surprises are far more central than action scenes and dramatic landscapes. Its well worthy of your attention.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up thinking it was a kind of throwback caper book -- something along the lines of the dark '70s crime fiction of George V. Higgins and the like. Well, it kind of is and isn't... It revolves around two burglars who steal items to order on behalf of a fixer in an unnamed small American city. But it's also playing with the concept of property, ownership, agency, and free will -- not to mention capitalism.

The story is narrated by Rick, who grew up with a father who was always on the take working for the city's building permitting office. Rick goes off to community college where he knocks up a classmate, and then bounces around, drifting into addiction and bottoming out. His father's old pal Froehmer is the one who sets him up as a thief. And when Rick meets Frank in rehab meetings, a beautiful partnership is born. (It's also implied that the two are partners in more than just crime, but it's very subtle.) Although beautiful is too strong a word, they are both chasing a life of peace, making just enough to get by, and more or less taking it one day at a time.

The prose is quite simple, which makes it a rather quick read -- although Rick's narration is somewhat removed and flat, everything's at a distance. This stylistically echoes the overt theme that they are both just pawns in a larger game that they have no idea about, and are just cogs in a machine. It's a weird book because while there are clear literal stakes involved (do X or Y happens) there is running subtext that any stakes are purely illusory. Late into the book, Rick's character takes a turn that is hard to reconcile in the literal sense, but completely logical in a sense that if nothing really matters, then doing X doesn't really mean anything about him. Less hard to square is a late revelation about Frank, which feels completely unearned. All in all, it's perhaps more of an existential novel than a crime novel -- I'm just not sure it's quite as interesting as it's trying to be.

[Dan]

My thanks to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for an advanced copy of this noir thriller.

Rick and Frank are thieves, acquirers of select objects and extremely good at what they do. Recovering addicts who met in rehab, both men bring a particular set of skills to their partnership, a partnership much more than occupational. But one lapse, an omen of trouble that they ignore, leading to a car accident after a job, and Frank is gone, leaving Rick only one choice but to find him.

Just Thieves by Gregory Galloway is a slim novel, but a very good one. Rick is a character who wants a family, is driven to help those he calls his family, even as they all leave or betray him. The writing is sharp with dialogue that that seems real, not movie tough guy and gal speak, more smart aleck and true to a character that just wants to be left alone and make a bit of money. The violence is sudden, and again real not cinematic with not a lot of description, but what is unsaid is just as scary. Loss drives a lot of the story. Rick has lost his parents early, leaving him alone in a world that drugs helped him deal with. As father he is kept at arm lengths from his daughter, not matter what monetary support he gives. As a reader you feel his loss even as he does increasingly horrible things as the story goes on.

A very enjoyable book. Fans of George Higgins and Elmore Leonard will enjoy the characters and he descriptions of the life they lead, and the quirks that drive the characters to do what they do. A very enjoyable noir, and I will be adding Mr. Galloway to authors I look forward to reading.

[Ross Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never judge a book by its cover is the old adage but that’s exactly the reason I found myself drawn to this cracking crime noir from an author I’d previously never heard of before.
Rick and Frank are a pair of thieves who steal, not for themselves but to order, through a third party named Froehmer. The items they steal are not necessarily high value but they are items that their clients want. On their most recent job Frank disappears along with the stolen item and Rick is put under pressure from above to retrieve the item but he also has his own reasons for finding Frank.
This is a great and somewhat unique little crime thriller. It’s a real page turner and I was never really sure what was going on or where the story would eventually lead. There is a lot of back story to the novel which takes up the early part of the book which is told through Rick’s veiwpoint. Rick’s investigation doesn’t seem to initially go anywhere but he soon learns of other events and clues that point to what may have happened but they don’t add up and it feels like he is shooting on the dark. However the novel gathers real pace towards the end and following a violent confrontation Rick discovers who is responsible but the conclusion throws up just as many questions as answers, as to who has actually been controlling events.
At the expense of repeating myself, this is a real gem of a thriller and well worth delving into.

[First Clue · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Frank’s day job is as a thief, but he believes himself a philosopher at heart, and uses his constant learning and contemplation to justify his ways. Ownership isn’t real anyway, he tells his partner, Rick, during their long stakeouts. There are hints that the two are a couple, but love or any kind of emotion seems beyond Rick, whose ennui and lack of agency sees him take on a life of crime because, whatever, it’s all the same. Mr. Froehmer, a crime boss who will remind readers of Breaking Bad’s Mr. Fring—aloof, sparing of details—assigns the partners seemingly meaningless things to steal, and they’re off on a trajectory that eventually sees Rick forced to take hold of the reins when his mentor can no longer make their decisions. Readers will love to hate Denise, Rick’s shifty ex, and will cheer Rick as an unlikely hero when he shakes off the blahs and takes charge of what matters. Fans of dialog-rich novels are the audience for this thoughtful noir from Galloway (Careful and Other Stories; The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand).—Henrietta Verma

[Stephen Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is so much good about this book but so much that is bad. The first person is very good and the plot unfolding is engaging. I liked the idea that there was a homosexual relationship that did not require any elaborate explanation. The GOAT is just about the most unsatisfactory plot device I have come across. The idea that play-maker Froemer is a "Could have been" lacrosse player intent on gaining a small trophy from some old school friends made me weep. That Frank had a connection with Froemer came out of the blue and was not credible. Rick suddenly stepping up from petty theft to contract killing was jarring, and his character, who has been sharing his life story becomes unlikeable as he uses wire and broken broom handle as a cheese cutter to strangle the life out of some poor random Froemer wants taken out. The relationship between Denise and Mobsley was never developed, even as a tiny clue, so the big reveal, unbelievably spilled by the drug addict who murdered a child Rick was being fingered for, is a tidy-up of epic proportions. The author has the voice but the denouement was just dull.

[Peter Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick and Frank are recovering addicts who are a housebreaking team. They are the perfect team, Frank's planning is meticulous and Rick has never been caught. All this changes when they are ordered to steal an object which seems to them has no value, perhaps because to someone it is priceless.

This is noir but not the run of the mill noir, it’s a dark tale about the lives and problems of two men drawn together by a chance meeting. It lays bare addictions and how they are dealt with, their debts both financial and of honour, and trying to determine a future when someone ultimately controls your life.

I loved the matter-of-fact approach to the crime and attitude of Rick and Frank, to whom it is just a job. Its low down and grimy, there's no sugar coating.

Just Thieves revels in its quirkiness but delivers a dark tale full of double crosses and surprises.

Full review can be found here https://peterturnsthepage.wordpress.c...

I received an uncorrected proof to review for participating in the Blog Tour. Many thanks to Tom at the publisher for including me.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts out as a caper story. Two guys are hired to commit a B and E and steal a innocuous item from a nothing special home. It blossoms into the back story of Rick, one of the two guys. He grew up crooked, had drug and relationship problems. He has a child who he seldom sees and he has now drifted into committing robberies at the direction of a friend of his father.

Rick has partnered with Frank, an odd loner who is the brains of their team.

The job goes bad and we go down a hole of double crosses and misdirection. Rick ends up working with Frank's sister to try to unravel things.

Galloway tells the story in Rick's first person. It is a spare just-the-facts narrative. I found the ending confusing and unsatisfying.

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great. I’ve realized I really enjoy crime drama, noir I guess, more so than general mystery. This book had everything from crime to drama, and also family and friendship, a little bit of drugs, and a horse.

After lending CHERRY by Nico Walker to my brother and having him devour it and recall to me all the reasons he liked it, I realized I was missing out on a nice gritty drama, and this book perfectly satisfied that need.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about the writing of this book and I will say there were a couple plot points that just kind of came up on you out of nowhere, but the story’s journey back and forth between past and present was very well executed and made for a nice slow reveal of a story.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick and Frank are small time crooks and recovering addicts. Rick is following in the footsteps of his father; Frank is just following Rick. They're good at what they do and work for the elusive Froehmer, who assigns the jobs to Rick and then pays him.

One day a seemingly random incident sets off a chain of events that will forever alter their lives. As Rick tries to figure out what is really happening, he is shocked and betrayed at every turn.

This is a unique, noirish suspense novel that will keep the reader guessing until the very last page. #JustThieves #NetGalley

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

guess i'm in the minority again. i dearly love me some noir (big fan of jim thompson & noir alley on TCM) so i had high hopes for this but it definitely let me down. nothing happened until the very end, the rest was way too repetitious with too much exposition & no action. i still don't know what happened to the daughter!

[John Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

A five-star plot combined with zero-star writing. Run-on sentences, typos, dialog where you have no idea who is speaking and strange paragraph structure hides a really interesting story. It kind of reminds me of a novel written by someone whose only writing experience has been texting on a phone.

[Max Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

So underwhelming, characters had zero physical description, couldn’t picture any of them in my mind. A story about thieves had me intrigued but it only had one robbery, I guess I was hoping for more & more intricacies about the thefts themselves. It could definitely have been deeper & each character given more detail.