I loved that the language for this book, used by the grifters and con artists and pickpockets that make up most of the characters, was taken from a 1950s study on the world of pickpockets!
Charlie Fisher is the perfect mark. As an adult reading this book, you know he's being conned from the moment he's allowed to "see" the first crime occur as he sketches people in a square in Marseilles, France.
But Charlie isn't a pickpocket, he's an ambassador's son, and he doesn't think like a criminal. He never stops to wonder why they'd let him, want him, in fact, to learn their "racket."
It's a dangerous mistake.
I won't reveal the actual "mark," what the head honcho is actually going after, or what Charlie does to make things right. Just know, you kind of have to get beyond Charlie's kinda ugly, "wanting to be a thief" stage to see the true, inner Charlie shine through.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and learning all the pickpocket argot.
