The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein

In the third book of the Pot Thief series, Hubert (Hubie) Schuze not only steals pots, but also a car and even a lady's heart. All because someone stole the $2,500 he was paid to examine a collection of rare Anasazi pots.

Orenduff uses the New Mexico setting as an additional character, evincing the enchantment for which the state is known. I could feel the warm sun, the rough adobe walls and the crystallized salt on the edge of the Margarita glass. I also liked the women who people Schuze's life and the way he treated them.

I haven't read the first two mysteries in the series (yet!), but had no problem following Hubie's story in this novel.

This book recently won the Lefty award for best humorous mystery of 2010 and I can totally understand why. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Even before the first Margarita of the evening.

I had the good fortune to be sitting at Michael's table when he won the Lefty at Left Coast Crime in Santa Fe. The award was a dramatic Native American pot set on a plinth, the pot having been made at a pueblo where he and his lovely wife had worked years ago. Talk about serendipity. Hubie, the pot thief, would have loved it.

I picked one of these books up on a trip to Santa Fe and have read several in the series. They are well written, interesting and funny in a tongue and cheek manner. Hubie will never get himself killed but you know he will manage to get himself in a mess and then find a way out - usually with the help of his ever loyal friends.

I like the authors perspective on the ancient pots and those who deal in them - whether they are reproducing, selling, collecting or "stealing" them. I look forward to addtions to this series.

Mike Orenduff's popular pot dealer (no, not that kind) Hubert Schuze is back in his third adventure. But this time, instead of trying to pull his own caper/scam, Hubie seems to have been scammed out of $2,500 himself. Watch out, scammers. His pride has been hurt. He was promised the money for appraising a private collection of Native American pots, but was done out of his fee. Trouble is, he can't find the owner, since he was taken to the collection blindfolded.

That's one of the great things about Mike Orenduff's send-up of Lawrence Block's classic Burglar series. Mike takes some of the great cliches of mysteries and thrillers and has them happen to the hapless (but not helpless) Hubie in new and fresh ways. As always, Hubie enlists the help of drinking buddy Susannah Inchaustigui (it's Basque; don't try to pronounce it) to sort out his options. And in this case, the options keep changing as unknown forces constantly raise the stakes. Hubie becomes in turn a burglar, a car thief, nearly a murder victim, is nearly arrested twice, and falls for two very different women. Double the reader's pleasures in this new adventure.

This third book is as unputdownable as Orenduff's first two. Not because of the blistering pace of a thriller, but because we're privy to Hubie's discussions and his reliably hilarious musings on life, love, classic movies, and the state of modern technology. Readers who know this series will be amply rewarded by Einstein and those who are new to it can enter the series with this book as easily as with the others.

And the best reward is to know that Orenduff is a long way from being finished with the Hubie saga. He generously includes a 20-page excerpt from the upcoming fourth volume, The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier, a culinary mystery set mostly in Santa Fe. I've had a taste of Number Four, but now we'll all have to wait for the main course.

This third book about the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Old Town purveyor of Indian pots is as much fun and as quick a read (i.e. you can't put it down) as Orenduff's preceding two in this series. The author manages to create a narrator you would love to have as neighbor/friend. Somehow, the fact that Hubie Schuze isn't always totally clear about where some of his pots come from doesn't detract from his basic good guy persona. And he manages to get into situations that keep you wondering how he's going to get out alive. If you are interested in the Native American art world -- even if you don't know anything about the ins and outs of the trade -- this is a fun way to get a peek into it. And it's also a humorous mystery that keep you guessing from start to finish.