The Procane Chronicle

by Ross Thomas

Book Overview

Philip St. Ives is hired to help a great thief, and becomes involved in murder and a million-dollar scam.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060808543
• ISBN13: 9780060808549
• Release Date: April 1987
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great caper

Ross Thomas wrote "The Procane Chronicle" and "Protocol for a Kidnapping" in 1971. Both are first class capers featuring "go-between" extraordinaire Philip St. Ives. Abner Procane is the "world's best thief" and shares the same lawyer as St. Ives. Procane has kept meticulous journals on every job he has pulled. The entire scheme is minutely detailed. When the journals are stolen, St. Ives is chosen as the go-between to recover them. The recovery is flawless...but the pages containing the particulars to Procane's next job are missing. What to do? The choices are many, and the chase is on. Amfred Killingsworth is the US Ambassador stationed in Belgrade. Some of his actions have made him an embarrassment and he has accrued some info that if made public could discomfit US interests in the region. The CIA pulls the snatch and shifts the blame to others. St. Ives is coerced by the State Department to be the go-between in the exchange. Midway into the escapade, St. Ives figures it is a ruse, but he is in too deeply to back out. Altering his already complex switch and escape, St. Ives working on the fly pulls it off...but not without major snags. From one tricky situation to another, the action is nonstop. Ross Thomas is a master at keeping the reader guessing. I consider it an important victory if I am only a page or two behind Mr. Thomas as I try to deduce the whodunit or whydunit in his novels. Ross Thomas keeps you off balance in a most enjoyable fashion.