The Ready-Made Thief

Ready Made Thief  by Augustus Rose   384 pages

Lee Cuddy is seventeen years old and on the run. Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, she finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle, but the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. They believe Lee holds the key to it all. Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city - empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, homes of vacationing families - but the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her - and why.

This dust jacket abstract was more enticing than the novel itself. The story tries to combine too many elements that make the story drag needlessly in parts. I disagree with reviews that call this a Love-It-Or-Hate-It book as I fall squarely in the middle; it is a decent story with great characterization and imagery, but it bored me with its excessive length.

Posted By:  Regina C.