Void Moon by Michael Connelly

 

To the average person, Cassie Black seems like the typical L.A. woman, all business and a bit remote.  She is selling luxury cars but doesn't date the customers who ask her out.  Her boss knows what almost no one else does.  Cassie has just gotten out of prison for manslaughter and is on parole.  Her boss had a similar story at one time and tries to help those in her situation.  The only other person who knows is her parole officer.

Cassie is trying her best to just live her life and get off parole but her itch is back.  She was one of the best cat burglars around and the manslaughter was from a job where things went south and her partner died.  That partner was also the love of Cassie's life and she hasn't been back to Los Vegas since.  But she contacts someone in the business and asks for a job.  She was given the job of stealing from a high roller. He was on a big roll and winning big.  He had a case he kept handcuffed to him whenever he left the tables and Cassie was to steal that case and whatever was in the safe in his room.  The catch: it would have to be done while he was in the room sleeping.

Cassie doesn't like the job.  It's in the same city and even the same casino where her lover was killed.  But she does want the money and agrees to the job.  Things seem to go well and she gets the case but that's the last thing that goes right.  Now she has the owners of the money and the police and a private eye all on her trail.  Can she get away?

This is a standalone novel by Michael Connelly and not one in the Harry Bosch series.  The author obviously researched techniques for safe cracking and installing surveillance cameras as well as picking door locks.  Cassie is a remote figure throughout most of the book as she has learned to be but by the end the reader will be pulling for her to succeed.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.