Unrealistic main character & sketchy plot
Elle is an experienced burglar but when she happens upon a triple murder scene in one of the houses she has been robbing she finds herself being stalked at every turn.
At around a quarter of the way through 'The Burglar' I had to go back to the books page to check on something I had suspected - that the author is male. Elle very much feels like the male fantasy of what the perfect female burglar should be. She's young, pretty, fit, slim and intelligent and very much knows it. She's experienced at breaking into people's houses and seems to know everything and have thought of everything she needs to know. All of this results in what I believe is the reason why so many female reviewers have marked this book down due to having an unrelatable main character. Elle has no personality, no depth or shade - she treats everything in exactly the same way; from going on a date or drinks with friends to discovering a murder scene or taking part in a high-speed car chase. I think the whole book could have been much better written in first person and Elle would have felt a lot more realistic for it.
Although we are constantly told that Elle is a fantastic burglar she makes a lot of ridiculous mistakes, none of which are picked up in the narrative. She visits her own crime scenes multiple times, goes out to her regular bar when she knows she is being stalked by killers and puts an ad up for a car the killers are looking for and goes to visit potential buyers in person - all of which are not very smart moves. She is still making the assumption that the stalkers are police officers far longer than any reasonable person would be despite seeing them kill someone. The burglary side of the story was interesting but very unrealistic. For example, early in the book Elle cracks a safe simply by guessing the combination - although the amount of codes she tried before hand would have either taken her hours or locked her out of most modern safes.
The plot is quite repetitive in places with things being spelled out to the reader over and over again. The ending wasn't particularly satisfying, you spend the whole book with a slow build of trying to work out what was going on then Elle makes a huge leap and guesses the whole thing from essentially nothing. You then hear the mastermind telling you the entire backstory for the plot towards the end, most of which you would have never been able to guess from any clues you are given earlier in the narrative.
Overall The Burglar is an easy read but with an unrealistic main character and sketchy plot isn't recommended reading I'm afraid. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic - Mysterious Press for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
