This book almost feels bipolar. At times, it is a very good book about the stealing of art. Other times, it is a personal story about an FBI agent.

Sadly, the personal story is really boring and amounts to digressions that really, really take too long. While Wittman's background is told quickly, when he joins the FBI he seems to spend too much time that on things that have nothing to do with the title. While one particular event is important because it impacts him, other events aren't essential and get overblown.

And it also seems as if he is tooting his horn a bit too much. Though in all fairness, it is a first person narrative. It's hard not to.

Towards the end, Wittman has to deal with red tape and this slows the pacing done.

However, I am very glad I read it.

This was a fun book to listen to while I packing. I feel like I gained a bit of insight into how the FBI works art crimes and there was also some insight into how they’re continuing to handle the Gardner Heist (badly).

Very well-written non-fiction book with lots of insights into how the author went undercover to recover stolen art.

The author's inside view of the world of art theft investigations is interesting. He focuses exclusively on high-profile thefts, which in reality is but a small part of the thievery going on in the art world. That leads me to think that the motivation for those investigations is fame, and so the more mundane crimes by art dealers cheating artists and owners (for example, the kind I am unfortunately familiar with) are ignored and unpunished. But an interesting book nonetheless.

2.1 Okay

Book Selection for November 18, 2015.

An enjoyable topic for me. This was interesting for the insight into how the FBI went about recovering stolen art and artifacts (i.e. undercover work) but after awhile the stories got repetitive. The book was fine, if skimmable.