Reviews for Just watch me : a novel

Library Journal
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Like deliciously deadly Dexter Morgan, antihero vigilante of the long-running Showtime series and the equally long-running series by Lindsay on which Showtime's show was based, Riley Wolfe is a bad guy for what he sees as good reasons. Robin Hood-like, he steals only from the 0.1 percent, whom he sees as morally corrupt and gladly knocks off if necessary. Now he has his eye on a particularly well-guarded set of sparklers: the Iranian Crown Jewels. Behind him is a dogged cop, and behind the cop is a female forger who sometimes works with Riley.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Kicks just keep getting harder to find for Riley Wolfe. He brazenly snatches a 12-and-a-half-ton statue during its public dedication and then tosses its benefactor, a pharmaceuticals billionaire, out of a helicopter into the freezing waters of Lake Michigan while in disguise as a coast-guard admiral. Of course, there is no rescue. The irony is darkly rich. And yet, with $50 million in his pocket, courtesy of the drug lord who hired him for the caper, Riley is left feeling edgy and antsy. It was too easy. The statue heist occupies a mere 13 pages. The remaining first-person narrative concerns Riley's efforts to steal the Iranian crown jewels. You read that right. They say it can't be done, what with astonishing space-age electronics and two teams of heavily armed mercenaries, not to mention the merciless Imperial Guard. Riley says, Just watch me. He enlists the talents of a beautiful art forger, all while being pursued by a relentless FBI agent who is barely a rooftop behind him. Wall scaling and rooftop leaps are Riley's preferred methods of conveyance. He is a master of parkour, a discipline that allows him to navigate complex environments without any equipment at astonishing speeds. And he is a lot of fun to follow. Fans of Lindsay's Dexter novels will not be disappointed. Where will Riley strike next?--Jane Murphy Copyright 2010 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The creator of Dexter Morgan, everyone's favorite homicidal sociopath (Dexter Is Dead, 2015, etc.), dials down the mayhem just enough to introduce a master thief who's equally proficient at his trade.Riley Wolfe is bored. Every single one of his heists, even the theft of a 12.5-ton sculpture from Chicago's Nesselrode Plaza during its dedication ceremony, goes off so seamlessly that there are no new mountains left to scalealmost literally, since Riley is accomplished in parkour as well as larceny. Looking for a suitably impossible challenge, he decides to steal the Daryayeh-E-Noor (Ocean of Light) diamond from among the Iranian crown jewels. The Islamic Republic obligingly makes the job easier by sending the jewels from their impregnable stronghold in Tehran to New York's Eberhardt Museum, a display site that promises to be exceptionally well armored but not quite as unbreachable. Riley's plot, as preposterous as it is absorbing, involves multiple disguises, multiple forged artworks supplied by his friend and one-time lover, Monique, and, for better or worse, multiple murders he carries out in between dispensing matter-of-fact bromides like "it doesn't pay to have friends, because you have to trust them, and that never works out." But you can't make headlines without breaking some necks, and Riley, though he takes no particular pleasure in dispatching the unsuspecting souls who stand between him and the Daryayeh-E-Noor, is fully up to the task. About the only thing that casts doubt on the ultimate success of his plan, which pleasingly unfolds with nary a hint of foreshadowing about ways and means, is his devotion to his long-comatose mother, an attachment Chicago FBI agent Frank Delgado, as fanatic as Riley in his way, picks up on after an inexplicable brain wave tells him that Riley's targeted the diamond, setting in motion a familiar game of cat and mouse, or cat and other cat.A brashly retro escapist caper reminiscent of Topkapi and just as likely to be filmed. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This terrific series launch from bestseller Lindsay (Darkly Dreaming Dexter) opens with master thief Riley Wolfe, an antihero Dexter fans will relish, using a helicopter to steal a 12-ton statue in broad daylight during its installation ceremony in Chicago. Wolfe also abducts the honoree, a greedy pharmaceutical mogul who developed a cancer treatment he only sells for $500,000 a dose, before pushing him to his death from the aircraft. After that act of vigilante justice, Wolfe seeks “a heist that was beyond impossible, something ridiculous, unthinkable, stupid, totally out of the question,” and finds one after learning that the Iranian crown jewels are scheduled to be exhibited at Manhattan’s Eberhardt Museum. He sets his sights on the exhibit’s prize, the Ocean of Light, a diamond valued at more than $15 billion, despite the formidable array of security, both electronic and human. His crafty multistep plan is a pleasure to watch unfold, and Lindsay deepens his lead with the revelation that Wolfe is capable of killing without any pretense of a moral justification. Fans of the Ocean’s Eleven film franchise will be eager for more. Author tour. Agent: Nick Ellison, Nicholas Ellison Agency. (Dec.)

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