The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy [Paperback]

J. Michael Orenduff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2009

The pot thief is back, but this time Hubert Schuze' larceny is for a good cause. He wants to recover sacred pots stolen from San Roque, the mysterious New Mexico pueblo closed to outsiders. An easy task for Hubert Schuze, pot digger. Except these pots are not under the ground - they're 150 feet above it. In the top-floor apartment of Rio Grande Lofts, a high-security building which just happens to be one story above Susannah's latest love interest. Hubie's legendary deductive skills lead to a perfect plan which is thwarted when he encounters the beautiful Stella. And when he is arrested for murder. Well, he was in the room where the body was found, everyone heard the shot, and he came out with blood on his hands. Follow Hubie as he stays one step ahead of building security, one step behind Stella, and one step away from a long fall down a garbage chute.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The second Pot Thief book is out. Time to return to lazy afternoons at Dos Hermanas Tortilleria, where the food is choice and the company even better. --Lou Allin, author of Man Corn Murders.

Mike Orenduff is a wordmeister. Old Town Albuquerque is a perfect setting for his memorable characters as he weaves them through the story like the threads of an old Navajo rug. --Marie Romero Cash, author of Tortilla Chronicles

Orenduff knows how to spin an intelligent tale and turn a surprising phrase. --F. M. Meredith, author of An Axe to Grind and other Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries

About the Author

Mike Orenduff grew up in a house so close to the Rio Grande that he could Frisbee a flour tortilla into Mexico from his back yard, a practice frowned upon by his mother. Like his protagonist, Hubert Schuze, Orenduff studied anthropology but never completed a degree in that subject. He did eventually receive a masters degree from the University of New Mexico and a doctorate in mathematical logic from Tulane. He has taught in New Mexico, Texas, Maine, New York, Wyoming, Bulgaria, Utah, Chile, Louisiana, Bermuda, and Georgia. He is married to his high school sweetheart, the noted art historian Lai Chew Orenduff, author of The Transformation of Catholic Religious Art in the Twentieth Century: Father Marie-Alain Couturier and the Church at Assy, France (The Edwin Mellen Press, New York and Wales).

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Dark Oak Mysteries (November 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892343797
• ISBN-13: 978-1892343796
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #960,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pot King of Duke City Rides Again, December 9, 2009

By 

Lou Allin "Islander" (Vancouver Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy (Paperback)

Easily overlooked and at personal peril underestimated, Hubie Schuze is as comfortable as a pair of slippers. He's short, on the wrong side of forty-five, and lives in the back of his shop, an ancient adobe building in the colourful Old Town part of Albuquerque in the Land of Enchantment. Hubie makes replica pots, but given the right circumstances, he also steals originals.
Hubie is a lapsed archaeologist turned businessman, booted out of university for "relocating" Puebloan pots up to a thousand years old. Nothing makes him happier than being alone under the desert stars digging up a treasure. "I figure I'm part of the public, so why shouldn't I have the right to prospect on our land?" he asks in all insouciance. It was much more pleasant before the bothersome Archaeological Resources Protection Act.
True to his own ethical code, Hubie has a bone to pick with the establishment. Phony language such as "deaccessioning" doesn't fool him. In some dig sites, scientists rebury the pottery, or even toss it out. As for the hypocrisy of museums, they lock away glorious artifacts so that no one can enjoy them, a real crime. A master potter and materials scientist in his own right, Hubie loves "pushing pots by day and digging them up by the light of the moon." Those which make up his real income have dubious parentage and command five figures. Dry spells do happen. That's when he has time to volunteer to correct an injustice.
From a trusted connoisseur friend, Hubie learns that five legendary pots were supposed to be returned to the elders at the nearby San Roque Pueblo, but ended up in the hands of an unscrupulous university professor. What's the problem? The professor lives in an eleven-story loft building constructed like a fortress with state-of-the-art defenses. This caper is the ultimate challenge, Topkapi Revisited.
As in the debut novel, where Pythagorus guided Hubie's philosophy, this time Ptolemy's wisdom oversees the parallels. What better place than the ebony New Mexico desert sky to demonstrate the optical illusion of retrograde motion, like a circle in a spiral? The hypnotizing paths of the stars form a pattern for life and give Man an idea of his inconsequence.
Hubie has a reverence for history and the few living links too stubborn to disappear. This respect often gains him access to the inner sanctums and secrets of the sacred kivas. "Ma children are taught to recite their ancestors' names back for ten generations. Everyone before that is called an ancestor without a name."
To hear Hubie describe pottery is to sit at the feet of a poet. "The pot...demonstrated perfectly how a flat plane can be represented on a curved surface....the glaze where the lightning coincided with the clouds must have been altered ever so slightly." When he can touch the same clay that an ancient molded, he is in heaven on earth.
Enjoy a salt-rimmed margarita with Hubie's Basque friend Susannah at Dos Hermanas Tortilleria in the soft breeze and muted light of magical Duke City. Their friendship a touchstone in the uncertainties of life, they spar screwball-comedy style about Warner Oland, Merle Oberon, and Sidney Greenstreet. And on the way home, Hubie's neighbour Gladys, Nuestra Senora de los Casseroles, will be waiting in ambush with a King Ranch Chicken Hot Dish. Life is good.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ptolemy could learn lessons from the Pot Thief!, March 30, 2011

By 

L. Rigod "avid mystery reader" (Nice, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy (Paperback)

After reading this novel, by J. Michael Orenduff, I think Ptolemy would have been well served studying The Pot Thief. I truly enjoy the adult discussions that Hubie and Susannah and others indulge in. All while enjoying those luscious sounding Margaritas.

This go round Hubie gets involved in a murder while trying to support Susannah's love life and also restoring, to their rightful owners, some ancient tribal pottery. Although Hubie is low-tech, he grasps the essentials of technology to find creative methods to achieve his ends.

The setting is Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico. It makes you want to head to your travel agency and book tickets now. Hubie makes it so familiar that you feel you could exit off a trolley and find yourself at home without a tourist map!

The truth is I just about like every aspect of this series. Please treat yourself to this intelligent, fun-loving, fast paced, yet peaceful series. Hubie needs our help or not?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Must-Read Intelligent Mystery by Orenduff, February 3, 2011

By 

New Orleans Writer "Gumbo Justice" (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy (Paperback)

The second in the Pot Thief series is just as good if not better than the first, the Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras. Hubert Schuze is up to old tricks "acquiring" pots. I won't say stealing, because you can only steal something if it actually belongs to the person you are taking it from. At least, that's how Hubert looks at it.

Hubert has a difficult time even locating these particular pots, and in the meantime meets a hot woman, does a little B & E, and gets accused of a murder. How's that for a few day's work?

Hubert Schuze is an unconventional hero in today's market, unique in that he is physically unimposing, incredibly bright, and drives his own story. When anything happens to him that is out of his control, he answers back by using his noggin, ultimately solving crimes the police can't. He's an endearing geek, awkward and lovable, and it's nice to see him having just a smidge of luck in the romance department in this one.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot, so I'll end by saying Orenduff's Pot Thief series is a must-read. He tells a compelling story, weaving his words in such a way they should be used as an example for all writers on how to show-not-tell. If you don't laugh out loud at Hubert's antics and some of the positions he finds himself in, you either have no sense of humor or you're already dead.

This is a great story by a great writer.

Holli Castillo
Author of Gumbo Justice