Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief

Rating:
Summary: No one could have stolen his ego....
Review: Highly recommended. Can't tell if the penetrating insights into the development of an enormously talented criminal are his or his co-writer's, but for sure Lee Gruenfield has brought all his thriller-writing skills to bear on this amazing tale. Should go down as a classic in the "true crime" genre.

Rating:
Summary: great book !!!!!!!!!!
Review: i don't read books that much usually newsweek...time... a variety of different magazines because it's hard for books to keep my interest..just one main story...usually i need to be reading 3 at a time and rarely finish one of them....well this book did it for me.....what a surprise...an easy read and so much fun...very exciting...i read the whole thing...rare for me...only 3 other books that i can remember kept my interest like this one ...one of c. sagon's fiction books....j. grisham the firm and the first harry potter book..hope they make a movie out of this one........

Rating:
Summary: Brings it all back....
Review: I had a strong interest in this book since I lived in Florida during the time Bill Mason was generating the most headlines. I wasn't disappointed - Mason and Gruenfeld paint a wonderful portrait of a time and place some readers might consider outlandish. The internal problems of the police, the outsized cocaine fueled personalities of the local attorneys, the party atmosphere - all is laid out exactly like I recall. I can't speak to the accuracy of the crimes themselves, but they seem very feasible. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book, aside from a look at the Lauderdale version of criminal justice, is his honest exploration of the damage he did to his family. While Mr. Mason may seem occasionally proud of his skill at crime (and really, how enjoyable would a book of shame be?) he is almost brutal in recounting his failure as a father and husband. Like any other addict, he could swear he'd quit, but he'd never keep his word. And, like many an addict's wife, his own inadvertantly enabled him to continue breaking and entering by her unconditional love. This book has Hollywood all over it - I hope the film is a tenth as interesting and entertaining as the book!

Rating:
Summary: One of the fastest moving, most fascinating books in a while
Review: I loved this book - I went into it already to be prejudiced, after all a jewel thief, what possibly would I like about Bill Mason, well just about everything. It's a deeply probing, honest inventory of himself, he doesn't glamorize his life of crime, make excuses for it and if anything again and again shares his regret over the people that were hurt mostly his loved ones, not to mention some of the victims. But the book reads like a Harlan Coben, you start it and you don't want to stop reading it. I was reading two other books at the same time, my usual way of reading, but the other two had to go by the wayside while I devoured every page of this book. It was excellently written, an amazing story and in the end it's as much about a good man and the people that he loves so much as it was about the sometimes funny, sometimes scary, always fascinating career of this master jewel thief.

Rating:
Summary: More than a Jewel Thief
Review: I read this book as it received a lot of publicity on initial release. I didn't find it to be a fast, compelling story of a dangerous jewel thief. Rather, I found it to be a tale of a common thief with a substantial amount of time spent on normal legal proceedings and life as a fugitive. While his life was much more normal than you may expect by reading the title, I still found it to be a very compelling read.

Mason starts the book as a teenager who has some minor run-ins with the law while living in Cleveland Ohio. He stumbles in to a life as a jewel thief while marrying, raising kids, and living a fairly normal life as an apartment manager.

The book really revs up with a move to South Florida in the 70s. Florida was exploding with drugs, crime, and wealthy northeners living in ocean front condos with expensive jewels. Mason describes some of his successful heists but the more interesting story is his relationship with the police. Also, there is a comical sideline of him buying a small ocean front home to rent where the renters continually turn out to be drug runners using his house as a delivery point.

The last part of the book has little to do with jewel thefts and more to do with family and escaping the law. Overall, I found this to be a worthwhile story to read. But "a master jewel thief" is really only about 40% of the story. That may be enough for most readers as it was for me.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I remember the headlines. I also remember the press and police were convinced that these jewel heists could only have been pulled off by a mission-impossible type team. Thanks to the Statute of Limitations, William Mason himself gives up the real story-more incredible than fiction- and one of the best reads I've had in years! Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief is a first rate memoir of America's most prolific Jewel thief. The story begins with Mason's first bungled teenage gas station job and ends on the roof of a posh 16 story Florida beachfront condo. On the way Mason takes the reader through huge scores, narrow escapes, the courtroom antics of ace lawyers and a major hometown sex scandal with the flair of a seasoned story teller. To his credit, Mason fights the natural urge to embellish his "accomplishments" and often attributes his success to luck or simply complacency of the wealthy. The time Mason has taken to reflect on his former life shows. His descriptions of his thought process during the planning and execution of theses heists are truly fascinating. His most profound introspection however, is found in his recognition of the emotional harm caused to his family and victims.

Rating:
Summary: better than any fiction!
Review: I was absolutely mesmorized by the accounting of this man's career in crime. I feel like I was on a journey with this man as his travails unfolded. As I read the book, I could easily imagine someone wanting to make a movie of this incredible story. I heartily recommend this book,which kept me spellbound to the end.

Rating:
Summary: THE CAPER OF THE STARS
Review: I WOULD RECOMEND ANYONE TO READ THIS BOOK. I HAVING SPENT THREE DAYS TOTALLY ENCOMPASSED BY THE STORY OF THIS PERSONS LIFE. IN THE FIRST 8 CHAPTERS BILL (THE MASTER JEWEL THIEF)LETS YOU TAG ALONG DURING HIS HEISTS. HE EXPLAINS HOW HE GOT INTO APARTMENTS, CONDOS, HOTEL ROOMS, AND HOW HE GOT PAST SECURITY GAURDS, LOCKS, CAMERAS AND INEBRIATED RICH WOMEN. BILL SOUNDS CANDID WHEN EXPLAINING THE DETAILS, SUCH AS HOW TO PICK A LOCK IN A HURRY. THE NEXT PART OF THE BOOK BILL DESCRIBES THE DIFFICULTY HE HAD WHILE IN JAIL AND DEALING WITH THE IMPLICATIONS OF BEING A THIEF. THE NEXT ACT BILL ELUCIDATES HIS LIFE ON THE RUN AS A FUGITIVE OF THE LAW. THE WAY HE LIVED HIS LIFE DURING THIS TIME WAS UNEXPECTED AND INTREPID. BY THE END OF THIS TRUE TO LIFE STORY BILL RECOUNTS WHAT EFFECT HIS LIFE HAD ON EVERYONE INVOLVED. FOR ME I SIMPLY COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN IT WAS ALL TO ASTONISHING AND REMARKABLE.THE ONE THING BILL UNFORTUNATLY DOES NOT REVEAL IS WHAT HIS LIFE IS LIKE NOW AND HOW IT COMPARES TO HIS PAST.

Rating:
Summary: He stole the time I spent reading this book
Review: If you're interested in reading a self-congratulatory exercise in ego, combined with self-serving justifications for criminal activity, this book is for you. The title (and the cover photography) promises stories of daring heists by a thief who mingles, tuxedo-clad, among the bejeweled and glittering. The number of pages devoted to actual jewel thieving are few and far between. We learn a great deal more than is interesting about his legal problems (and what exactly makes him a master if he's been caught?), his relationships with women, his involvement with Mob figures and drug deals... all told with great attention to the number of times Mason can climb up a rope using only his amazing upper-arm strength. In the last seven of 358 pages, Mason takes the time to admit that perhaps his chosen profession was less than acceptable and to say that - at this late date - that perhaps he had inflicted more than financial damage when he stole, and gee, he's kinda sorry about that. Borrow this one from the library if you must read it; the man doesn't deserve a cent in royalties.

Rating:
Summary: true crime memoir
Review: In the 1960s when Bill Mason was in his twenties, he began a life of crime, stealing jewelry. As he became more proficient at his profession, he raised the ante soon taking gems from a virtual who's who of 1960s-1970s Hollywood. Such notables like Phyllis Diller, the Cleveland Mafia chief, and Bob Hope were among his victims. Mr. Mason especially seemed to enjoy a caper involving a perfect security system that no cat burglar could crash. Besides meticulous planning of the theft, Mr. Mason constantly states that the problem with a100% burglar proof security system is somewhere a human is involved; meaning windows left open, systems not turned on, etc.

This true crime memoir initially leads readers to feel Mr. Mason sounds like a real life Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. However, that turns a bit negative when it feels as if the author is boasting about his daring deeds that led to little jail time, but also the author shows some remorse that his profession has had a negatively profound impact on his family. Well written and fascinating, the true crime biography audience will take a kind of morbid delight in CONFESSIONS OF A MASTER JEWEL THIEF, but count your rings afterward.

Harriet Klausner