Fake Money, Blue Smoke by Josh Haven

Published by Mysterious Press on December 6, 2022

Counterfeiting, art theft, swordplay, and a train robbery. What more do you need to make a thriller? Or, for that matter, a love story?

Matt Kubelsky was sentenced to prison after being convicted of murder while he was serving in the Army. After his lawyer obtained a sentence reduction, Matt was transferred from Leavenworth to a federal prison in New York and released after five years. He is surprised when his former girlfriend, Kelly Haggerty, offers to pick him up when he's released. He might be even more surprised when she offers him a job.

Kelly is a counterfeiter. She has concocted a scheme to use fake money to pay thieves to steal Klimt sketches using information she purchased from an insurance guy (using fake money) about the security plans to transport the sketches. She intends to sell the sketches to an art collector in Qatar. She needs Matt to (1) hire the art thieves, figuring that Matt probably made the right connections in prison, and (2) act as her bodyguard when she gets paid for the stolen art.

There are a couple of salient facts that Kelly doesn’t tell Matt. To avoid spoilers, I won’t reveal them. Suffice it to say that the scheme is more complex than Matt imagines and that Kelly, while greedy, is motivated by more than greed.

Matt readily accepts the gig because he needs money and because his only other plans involve (1) covering up the swastika tattoo on his neck that kept him from getting murdered in prison and (2) getting even with the people he blamed for his imprisonment. The first plan is easy to execute but the second takes a little more time. He also needs to protect himself from the white supremacists who feel betrayed when they realize they have been paid for art theft with counterfeit currency. Fortunately, the art collector in Qatar likes Matt and gives him a sword that helps him with vengeance and self-defense.

Kelly is a resourceful criminal with a pleasant personality. Matt has a flexible moral standard (he doesn’t object to murdering those who deserve it) but, like Kelly, he isn’t all that bad if you ignore his willingness to commit crimes. Josh Haven makes it easy for readers to hope that Matt and Kelly will survive the threats they face and perhaps even prosper.

Fake Money, Blue Smoke is a light crime novel, notwithstanding the occasional beheading. The art theft involves a classic train robbery. It’s difficult for a crime fiction fan not to welcome a train robbery. Matt and Kelly seem to reignite the passion they felt before Matt went to prison. Whether their emotions are genuine or whether they are using each other (or both) is a question the reader will ponder until the novel’s end. And while the culmination of the criminal scheme involves a twist that isn’t surprising, the ending suits the beach read nature of the story.

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Comments

[Jane]

Have you read… »Hold Fast «  by JH Gelernter

Same author, different genre