Prince of Thieves

Grime stained and radiating the sour smell of beer and bodies, Chuck Hogan’s [Prince of Thieves] is a blue-collar book, like Charlestown, the blue-collar, Boston neighborhood from which it is born. Irish and Catholic and fermented with blood, this oldest neighborhood in Boston spawned the largest number of bank and armored car robberies, per capita, than any other neighborhood in the United States in the 1990’s.

Hogan seized on the underbelly of Charlestown to tell the story of Doug MacRay and his crew. The book opens with the crew pulling a “Morning Glory/Jack-in-the-box” robbery of a Charlestown bank – the crew breaks in overnight and waits for the bank management to arrive, taking over the bank and waiting for the vaults show more time-lock to expire. The job doesn’t go exactly as planned, and one of the crew takes the bank manager, Claire, hostage for their flight, releasing her once they are clear. Doug keeps tabs on Claire, making sure that she hasn’t been able to identify the crew to the FBI, and then begins a relationship with her. The rest of the book follows Doug and his crew as they continue to pull heists and evade the FBI.

A plot summary doesn’t do the book justice, though, just as you might miss the soul of Charlestown by looking only at the grime and soot on the old buildings. Doug, it turns out, was a hockey phenom, drafted by the Boston Bruins, only to flame out in violence and drug abuse. During the last of his second bit in Mass. DOC, Doug finds AA, and begins to turn his life around. But back home, he can’t turn his back on friends and family and a way of life. Though born of violence and manipulation, Doug’s relationship with Claire is his chance to break free of all of the things in his life that keep him rooted in the Town.

Many of you may have seen the film version of this novel, “The Town,” from Ben Affleck a few years back. While the film is grounded firmly in Charlestown, the story is not quite as deep as told here in the novel. The film stands on its own as a fair representation of the Irish crook life, it doesn’t get at the soul of Hogan’s novel, which is really the battle for Doug’s soul.

Hogan gives Dennis Lehane a run for his money as the voice of blue-collar Irish Boston. Without seeding the story in that real blue-collar, Irish world, Hogan wouldn’t be able to pull off the story of such a character trying to break free of all the things that he’s been bred to believe he is.

Bottom Line: A heist book on the surface, and a story about breaking free at its soul.

5 bones!!!!!
A favorite for the year. show less

3.5 stars, really.

This is a fast pace, surprisingly interesting book. The characters have more depth than I was expecting, and Hogan's writing is clean and smart. The book is about four bank robbers, but Charlestown (the town they live in) is it's own character as well.

This isn't the kind of book I normally read, but it was fast and fun. I definitely recommend for a fast light read if you like action packed thrillers, because it's great *and* it has a fair amount of good character development (which is rare).

I read this because I loved the movie The Town. I figured the source material would be as good. It was but I will warn you. It is an extremely moody and sad piece. I feel terrible upon finishing it.

While overall I did enjoy this book, I think it was a bit uneven. Parts of it read like a love story about Charlestown (called The Town which is also the name of the movie adaptation) which adds a lot of richness in terms of setting and atmosphere, but which also takes the pressure off and eases the tension. Not something you want to do with a heist thriller. Just when either the investigation of or the crimes themselves get going, we get an ode to The Town thrown in and so I couldn’t get worked up about the situation. Doug was written as such an extreme of a romantic lead that his ending wasn’t surprising. What was is how far into the heist Frawley let the caper go. I don’t think cops would do that no matter what, but it’s show more fiction so you have to let it go. Claire I found to be the most strange of the bunch. I didn’t quite buy her reaction to the knowledge that her new boyfriend was the same guy who bound and gagged her during the bank robbery. Then again, she was Doug’s opposite number so had to be equally romanticized and dramatic. That was another issue with the whole thing; the high-flown style was a bit much. One part gritty thriller one part Romeo & Juliet. Eh, it had commitment issues, but if you can allow for that it’s enjoyable. show less

I was drawn to this novel when I read all of the great reviews for the film that it inspired. I'm the kind of person who likes to read the book before the movie. I was struck by the grit that Hogan portrays when describing this section of Boston. While comparisons can be made to Dennis Lehane, I think Hogan brings a unique view to this story. On the surface, it appears to be a run of the mill action/heist story, but at its core, this novel is a riveting tale of forbidden love and the struggle to overcome the limitations of class and family.

I took a chance on this book, even though I'm not usually a fan of crime novels or mysteries, and was pleasantly surprised. This novel (which inspired the recent movie "The Town") is not a crime drama or a mystery after all. It is mainly a character study of Doug, an ex con, bank robber, recovering alcoholic who has grown beyond his friends, his profession, and the small-town, hard-core, bad neighborhood he grew up in. Insightful, thought-provoking, and impossible to put down.

I would've probably liked it more if I managed to sympathise with the protagonist but I can't. Not sure it's the author's fault. To be fair I have the same issue with other crime stories. Otherwise I liked the writing, down to earth like the characters and the plot, even if straining credulity does have a pretty neat conceit.