In this wicked debut, safecracker Michael Maven must pull off the most dangerous theft of his long career–or his friends and family will be killed. Safecracker Michael Maven’s latest job should be simple: steal a rare coin from a New York apartment. Except the coin’s owner comes home with a beautiful woman, who murders him, nearly murders Maven, and takes the coin herself, and then Maven’s life … then Maven’s life gets really complicated: the woman’s boss, a sadistic drug lord, forces him to take on a far more dangerous job.
If Maven fails to crack the safe of a rival cartel boss in Miami, his friends and family will die. If he succeeds, he might. Which means he not only has to somehow pull off an impossible heist, but also outwit two crime bosses as well as his reluctant new partner – the woman who started it all.
Ryan Wick hits the right combination in Safecracker, unlocking a fast-paced, action-packed, cinematic thriller, the first in a new series.
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Wow, this was a fast, tense ride! A likable MC, seriously nasty bad guys, and a tight plot that starts with a bang and just keeps going. Ryan Wick is definitely an author I’ll be reading in the future. A wild, action-heavy thriller.
Thanks to netgalley.com and the publisher for the ARC. #Safecracker #NetGalley
This was a great book! You have the cops, FBI, several Mexican gangs, not to mention some of the best safecrackers. I know this sounds like a comedy but it really is a very intense book! I had a tough time putting it down because I just had to know what was going to happen next. It is so packed full of action! You WILL love it! Thanks for the great book!
Ryan Wick’s debut novel, Safecracker, is a high-octane action, thriller. The story starts with an incredible hook, and never slows down.
Michael Maven is a master safecracker, but really a minor criminal, who gets forced into a high-stakes heist of a rare coin. The characters are great. The criminals are demented, and they make Maven look like a good guy. The plot tension is insane and the action is nonstop. Warning: the book contains some graphic, grizzly violence.
Mr. Wick’s debut turned his great premise into a page-turner of a book. Plenty of twists to keep me reading all night. I could easily see this book turned into a “summer box office hit” on the big screen, and I can’t wait for author Ryan Wick’s next book!
Safecracker by Ryan Wick
A thief
A job
Supposed to be easy
And yet it was not
A glitch
A hitch
Someone slit his throat
Did he die – or not?
Excellent debut novel that had me up till 2am needing to find out what would happen next. I could not put it down and it is the beginning of a new series starring Michael Maven!
What I liked:
* That I was hooked reading the first sentence of this book
* Michael: just enough shared about him but not too much. A chameleon with strong work ethic dedicated to getting every detail right. A good friend. I never got a true picture of his physical being but did see his character fully.
* Michael’s friends and associates Liz and Jimmy were there for him in more ways than one…so was Marco.
* Katarina: an intriguing woman that grew on me as the book progressed. I wonder if she might show up again in the future.
* The detailed planning that went into heists
* The action/fight scenes
* That the writing involved all my senses
* The real feel of the story
* That the bad guys were evil bad dudes that so deserved to be put down
* Trying to figure out who Michael might be played by in a movie production of this book – it surely deserves a movie!
What I did not like:
* The bad guys…the more I saw of and heard about them the more I disliked them
Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Definitely
Do I recommend this to others? Highly recommend it!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press-Thomas Dunne Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars
Okay I’m a thief and I got a job to do that seems to be straight forward so what could go wrong? Only I get to witness a murder during the job and now I’m on their radar. This is a fast moving thriller with some real nasty bad guys and some criminals that you can’t help feeling sympathy with and hoping they make it out in one piece. The book was an easy, entertaining read but hard to put down.
Having really enjoyed this story I hope we have not seen the last of some of the key characters.
Wow! Just wow! The only thing that this needed to make it more perfect is a soundtrack. I gobbled it up so fast through this first reading and now I’m going to read it again slowly so I can savor every amazing word. The author is an amazing wordsmith. He is able to use words to stir the imagination to amazing heights. The characters he created are not just skin deep. They are flawless in their massive imperfections. Michael Maven is going to become a household name. He is a gentleman thief who has high standards for his craft. Seeing how the story ends I only hope that the author has great plans for him to fly.
Meet Michael Maven… professional thief. He researches and plans, and he never gets caught. SAFECRACKER is a well written thriller that will keep you turning pages well into the night. You will meet criminals who will make Mr. Maven seem like a Boy Scout. All that makes him a professional requires just one slip to make his life a misery. Well, nobody’s perfect.
There are elements in SAFECRACKER that had me comparing it favorably with the Orphan X series, by Gregg Hurwitz. It isn’t every debut novel that demands a follow-up, but SAFECRACKER surely does. There is a subtle hint at the very end of the book that suggests we may be seeing more of Michael.
Anyone who enjoys a book with a heart stopping start and a kickass story, will surely want to read SAFECRACKER.
In a word: THRILLING.
If you love thrillers, Safecracker is one you won’t want to miss. Ryan Wick has written a compulsively-readable page-turner filled with explosive action and characters you won’t forget.
This book grabbed me from the opening sentence, when Michael Maven rather casually mentions having his throat slit in Alastair’s Pub at exactly 9p.m. And then calls it both infuriating and unfortunate, because his BFF Jimmy owns Alastair’s and Michael considers it a second home. All he was doing was watching a Cardinals game when the cuckoo clock chimes and his would-be killer takes a knife to his throat.
Somehow the words “infuriating” and “unfortunate” seem like an understatement for attempted murder.
From this attention-grabbing first chapter, Wick backs up to twelve days earlier when what should’ve been an easy theft turns deadly. From that point on, Wick slowly turns up the tension, little by little, until the harsh, bloody climax.
CHARACTERS
Michael Maven is a complex character. Though he’s a professional thief, he has moral guidelines for his behavior: never leave someone’s place a mess after stealing their possessions, don’t sleep with married women, and don’t tolerate violence against women. He’s not opposed to violence, but he’s not a killer. He loves his friends, too.
Like all good thieves, he prepares for his crimes with almost OCD-level preparation, knowing that he’ll have to adapt to whatever unexpected things happen during his heist. He uses his ill-gotten wealth to indulge in his other passion: keeping his beloved movie theater afloat.
He’s met his match in Katarina Georgiu, though. She’s beautiful but deadly, of course; that’s a given in this genre. Yet of all the femme fatales I’ve read about recently, she’s one of the most compelling. An intelligent and ruthless trained fighter, she’s a worthy opponent for Michael.
Surrounding them is a cast of memorable, almost unscrupulous people of varying levels of evil. I say almost because all of them have some moral code they adhere to. These aren’t people I want to cross paths with in real life. But on the page, I couldn’t keep my eyes off them. From an ex-intelligence officer-turned-hacker to two bloodthirsty crime bosses out for revenge and everything in between, these characters both fascinate and horrify.
POINT OF VIEW
Wick immerses us in the mind of a professional thief. Through Michael’s eyes, we see as he casually swipes a beer mug to obtain a fingerprint, picks locks in under a minute, and searches a wealthy man’s empty house for valuable property.
Reading about these professional thieves makes me wonder why I bother to lock my doors. On the other hand, I don’t have the type of property these pros would want. No rare coins, valuable jewelry, one-of-a-kind art. No connections with drug cartels, either.
PLOT
The story unfolds like one of Michael’s beloved movies, always with an eye toward the visual effects. The action scenes are as carefully choreographed as any action flick and obviously written by someone trained in martial arts. With the snappy dialogue, the plentiful action sequences, and compelling cast of characters, this book feels like a blockbuster in the making.
Ryan Wick ratchets up the tension to an unbearable level–and then cranks it up some more. During his attempted heist, Michael has every imaginable problem (and then some!) thrown at him. It takes all his ingenuity and strength to overcome each one, and as Wick makes clear, failure is always a possible outcome. So is death.
By the climax, I was breathless with anticipation, not knowing how events will play out and hoping that the outcome would fulfill the promise of all the previous chapters. I wasn’t disappointed.
Recommended. Thanks to St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne books and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I flew through this story. A thief is running from an assassin, but they both are forced to work for a cartel king…say what!!! Oh and yeah, the FBI is in their trail…just a normal week.
The action is non stop and the planning and execution of this story was fantastic. The details are important and all the characters play an important role. The outcome is always in flux and who is the good guy can be somewhat questionable. Some scenes are graphic and the violence is shied away from, but that brutality led to the vivid credibility of these scenes, characters and world.
I loved the background information and how the ending left us with the segue into a next book. I hope to see the FBI agent and Katerina both in the next book and Jimmy! Also I hope we see more of Liz and learn about her connections because they came in clutch for this story!
Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Dunne Books for a chance to read this book and share my opinions.