About this ebook
'If they've got any sense they'll leave the boy with Alicia Robbins.'But they didn't.They (the Juvenile Court, that is) took Gerry Lovell away from the old spinster who had taken him in ad cared for him so passionately and they had packed him off to an Approved School.
Gerry had always been 'the one who was different': even as a boy he found crime only an excitement, not a moral wrong.Perhaps he could have been rescued from this but he wasn't.From the moment he entered the Approved School his way forward was mapped out: robbery and deception, crime taken like a drug, until at last, as the henchman of the underworld mogul Graham Bond, he was prepared to risk everything - the happiness of a young wife and child, a promising career, the loyalty of the old woman who had stood by him through everything - to throw them all as stake just 'for kicks'.
Through a series of incidents more tense than any ordinary thriller Thief moves rapidly towards a climax of violent excitement. There is a brilliant picture of how the underworld works and there is, too, a warmth and human understanding that will make this novel remembered long after it is laid down.
Rupert Croft-Cooke, of whom Sir Compton Mackenzie has said 'no contemporary novelist has offered us so many readable books' here gives yet another proof of his remarkable versatility.
Gerry had always been 'the one who was different': even as a boy he found crime only an excitement, not a moral wrong.Perhaps he could have been rescued from this but he wasn't.From the moment he entered the Approved School his way forward was mapped out: robbery and deception, crime taken like a drug, until at last, as the henchman of the underworld mogul Graham Bond, he was prepared to risk everything - the happiness of a young wife and child, a promising career, the loyalty of the old woman who had stood by him through everything - to throw them all as stake just 'for kicks'.
Through a series of incidents more tense than any ordinary thriller Thief moves rapidly towards a climax of violent excitement. There is a brilliant picture of how the underworld works and there is, too, a warmth and human understanding that will make this novel remembered long after it is laid down.
Rupert Croft-Cooke, of whom Sir Compton Mackenzie has said 'no contemporary novelist has offered us so many readable books' here gives yet another proof of his remarkable versatility.
About the author
The English author Rupert Croft-Cooke (1903-1979) published thirty-odd novels on a wide variety of subjects in his life-time, as well as poetry, plays, non-fiction books on such diverse topics as Buffalo Bill, Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Victorian writers, criminals, the circus, gypsies, wine, cookery, and darts. Under the pen name of Leo Bruce he also wrote more than thirty crime novels.
At the age of 20, Croft-Cooke spent two years in Buenos Aires, where he founded the journal La Estrella. In 1925 he returned to London and began a career as a freelance journalist and writer. His work appeared in a variety of magazines, including New Writing, Adelphi, and the English Review. In the late 1920s the American magazine Poetry published several of his plays. He was also a radio broadcaster on psychology. In 1940 he joined the British Army and served in Africa and India until 1946. He later wrote several books about his military experiences.
From 1953 to 1968 Croft-Cooke lived in Morocco where he wrote his Sensual World series, possibly his most important contribution to English letters, written as a series of twenty-seven autobiography-cum-travel books.
At the age of 20, Croft-Cooke spent two years in Buenos Aires, where he founded the journal La Estrella. In 1925 he returned to London and began a career as a freelance journalist and writer. His work appeared in a variety of magazines, including New Writing, Adelphi, and the English Review. In the late 1920s the American magazine Poetry published several of his plays. He was also a radio broadcaster on psychology. In 1940 he joined the British Army and served in Africa and India until 1946. He later wrote several books about his military experiences.
From 1953 to 1968 Croft-Cooke lived in Morocco where he wrote his Sensual World series, possibly his most important contribution to English letters, written as a series of twenty-seven autobiography-cum-travel books.
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