The Looters [Hardcover]

Harold Robbins (Author), Junius Podrug (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2007

In the world of priceless art, greed and egos collide-- anything goes, at any price
 
The world of priceless art is a playground for billionaires, a rarefied atmosphere even more privileged and ruthless than owning a champion race horse or a sports team. Money and ego have turned the quest for art into a deadly business in which the superrich battle to possess the rarest and most beautiful objets d'art on Earth.
 
Sammu-ramat: Queen of Babylon. The first warrior queen in history, called by some the Whore of Babylon. Her golden death mask left a legacy of lust and violence to those who fought to possess it.
 
Madison Dupre: curator for the billion-dollar Piedmont collection. She fights for her career, her freedom--and her life--after she acquires the fifty-five-million-dollar golden mask of the long dead Babylonian queen.
 
Coby Lewis: an ex-Navy SEAL, who uses his frogman training to dive for sunken treasure. Madison knows she can't trust him… but she also can't resist him.
 
Abdul ibn Hussein: His father died protecting the golden mask from thieves. Abdul said that the mask was stolen when the Baghdad museum was looted as American troops entered the city. He also claims that Navy SEALs worked with Iraqis to loot the museum.
 
New York, London, Zurich, and Malaga are the venues as the heat is turned on Madison--and she goes on the run to clear her name and save her life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who buy Podrug's latest collaboration with the Robbins estate (following The Betrayers) will expect a Robbins-style erotic thriller. What they will get is dull, predictable and surprisingly tame. Madison Dupre, 34 and single, is out to secure her place in the rarefied world of antiquities by acquiring a $50-million Babylonian death mask for her employer, the Piedmont Museum of Mesopotamian Art. The mask's legendary curse soon kicks in: at its unveiling, an uninvited Iraqi insists that it was among the treasures taken by looters from Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities following Saddam's downfall. With her job, reputation and even freedom (the FBI thinks she's in on the fraud) on the line, Madison sets out to unmask the looters, which turns out to be a very unsafe undertaking indeed. The incestuous, fiercely competitive antiquities world makes for an intriguing setup, but Podrug's execution is clunky. The action is improbable, the dialogue hackneyed, the sex (a Robbins hallmark) pedestrian and scarce. Status-obsessed Madison is hardly likable. Robbins died in 1997; it may be time to let him rest. (Sept.)
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Review

"A mile-a-minute page-turner . . . all the suspense, action, and sex you'd expect from a Harold Robbins novel."--William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Constitution on The Devil to Pay

 

"Harold Robbins is a master."--Playboy

 

"Robbins's books are packed with action, sustained by a strong narrative, and are given vitality by hisown colorful life."--The Wall Street Journal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books (September 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765313707
• ISBN-13: 978-0765313706
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Page Turner, November 10, 2011

By 

Rojogaix (Davie, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Looters (Mass Market Paperback)

The Looters is both exciting and educational. The buildup of compressed tension in the first half of the book was extraordinary, while the unraveling of the plot was skillful, interesting and well thought out. I found the insight into archeological colleactibles interesting compensation for an educational hiatus. Don't believe those claiming this books is replete with sex and violence. True, there is some violence, but it is the validated threat of violence which helps produce tension. I must have missed the steamy sex scenes, while recalling more reference to sex than participation, and vocalizing a hurrah! for the author's prescient awareness that our choice of sexual partners is neither rational nor predicatable. One of the few books I can recommend witout reservation. Enjoy!

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing work from the Robbins/Podrug combo, November 15, 2009

By 

Bob Chorba "Bobbyc" (Milwaukee, Wisconsin United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Looters (Mass Market Paperback)

Like some of the other reviewers I gave up on Robbins. Then a relative sent me "Blood Royale". I then started reading the other books in the series. This entry had a little too much gratuitous sex and violence for my taste. BUT I have not given up on the authors. Let's see how the "Deceivers" is.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his very best!, November 21, 2007

By 

W. Platt (Mobile, Al.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Looters (Hardcover)

I bought this book for my cousin. He couldn't thank me enough. He said once he started reading it; he couldn't put it down and when he wasn't reading it he was thinking about it. Now I have to read it because he is the best critic I know.