Customer Reviews

The Thieves of Heaven

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Anyone who reads the dedication for this book will realize the author has actually set the tone for a love story in his first novel. Michael and Mary have a bond far deeper than just their love for eachother. This book is uplifting in every regard..it is action packed and the ending will fill you with hope. Congratulations Richard on keeping me glued to the pages for hours!! I look forward to your next novel!

Have you ever finished a book that was so enjoyable that you just had to tell somebody?! Well I've just read The Thieves of Heaven by Richard Doetsch and so YOU are the one I'm going to tell! Cool, right?

Michael St. Pierre is a master thief--or should I say he was, since he's retired now and married to his beautiful, beloved wife, Mary. He was first sent to prison when he chose to save a woman's life rather than leave the site where he was in the midst of stealing diamonds. Of course, nobody really knew what he had done so he was sent to jail and was now out, running his own security system business.

He and his wife, Mary, are very much in love. When she first learned he was a thief, she pulled away but soon came back to him and visited him while he was in prison. But she did ask Michael for a promise: he was not to go back into his life of crime!

Helping him to keep that promise is his parole officer, now close friend, Detective Busch. His wife, Jeanne and Mary are also close friends.

But then they found that Mary had a tumor which was cancerous. Her treatment would cost $250,000. Busch offered to cash in his $35,000 retirement, but no bank would give Michael a loan and Mary had just changed jobs and her insurance had not yet started. Mary was a very devout woman and both regularly attended the Church. Michael even begged them for help; they turned him away!

Where could Michael get the money?!

And then he was visited by a well-known billionaire; he would pay all expenses for Mary, if Michael would do one job for him.

With no other option, Michael agreed. And then learned that he was to steal just two keys--from the Vatican!

In order to complete the job and get the remaining money, Michael had to figure out where the keys really were! Michael had a mind for such strategic thinking...so it didn't take him long to figure out where to go next.

For by now, Michael knew that the keys were those that had been given by Jesus to Simon Peter some 2000 years ago...

And he did find the keys, but was almost killed until again, his mind figured out how to get away. He immediately delivered the keys to his employer and went home to Mary. It was then that he learned that the treatments for Mary were not working; the cancer was spreading.

And the man who he had escaped when he found the keys was at his home waiting...His name was...Simon...

He told Michael a story about himself and explained what Michael had done by stealing the keys. And who the billionnaire really was. He told Michael they were going to steal the keys back!

I must say that I love fiction based upon the Bible! And Richard Doetsch with The Thieves of Heaven gave this suspense/mystery/thriller fan one of the best books I've ever read! Michael is filled with disbelief, fear, worry, but he could not take the risk that his beloved Mary would...

What would YOU do? This is supernatural suspense at its finest! A must-read recommendation from this reviewer!

Book was Purchased



G. A. Bixler

Thieves of heaven is an explosive suspense about a master thief stealing an important treasure. The many surprising twists and turns keep the reader quickly turning pages with excitement. This non-stop thriller is without doubt, a solid, highly entertaining read, which makes it easy to fall into the rhythm of the book and the main characters: Michael and Mary, whose undying love and devotion to one another makes it hard to put down.
I definetively loved this book, which reminded me of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I liked how the action never stopped as well as the sudden development of the events. I will surelly be looking for more books by Richard Doetsch!

I had finished reading tons of Dean Koontz and James Patterson books and was looking to read an author not as well known. I decided on this book by Ricahrd Doetsch and was very impressed overall. It's a good read and very entertaining. You won't be dissappointed.

My first thoughts were that the author had a wonderful opening plot, and that the relationships between characters was not as wooden as you often find in novels written by men. Definitely an ambitious plot line for a first book.

However, every major character's life is either undergoing extreme suffering now, or experienced such during formative years. It got a bit silly. So did the ridiculous threats/attempts to kill the heroes--it almost seemed like a James Bond flick in the way the most powerful bad guy in history can't seem to arrange to dispatch his enemies without them escaping again and again.

The author also DID NOT do his research very well. I found his inaccuracies difficult to ignore as he laid them out throughout the book (i.e., characterization of the male, not female as proclaimed in the book, Hindu god Shiva in particular comes to mind). The odd part is that much of this information was extraneous to the novel, anyway, so why include it when someone is obviously going to notice the inaccuracy?

For a first novel this was good, if overwrought and under researched.

This novel was a nice read for a first time author. The characters were developed well, and Mr Doetsch certainly has some talent, but I couldn't help but think that he was writing a screenplay that turned itself into a novel. There were some really flagrant plot discrepancies, at least I thought so, and the superficial attributes to the stories antagonist were too over the top, too supernatural, and disjointed. What I mean by this is the antagonist had some over the top powers that upon Mr Doetsches whim, allowed him to be out of gas. Doetsch was reaching for sensationalism to save the dead end he painted himself into. The genre can be compared to the Da Vinci Code, but the similarities end, there at the genre. Dan Brown is an excellent author with much more polished skills in plot development, but as I said, a good first novel.

This book was indeed a fast read. It did have a good underlying tone to it about redemption, and don't get me wrong, it was enjoyable. I would like to read more by Mr. Doetsch as his skill develops.

I loved this book. A great good verses evil story. The book revolves around a thief who steals two keys from the Vatican, which will prevent his wife from entering into heaven. It is well written and does not disappoint. A great protaganist who will be a repeat character in future storylines. I could not put this book down. I will definetely buy another book from this author.

I've ended up reading this series of books out of order, it seems. I started with The Thieves of Darkness, the last in the series to date, which was just the kind of book I enjoy - lost treasures, hidden maps, jewels, etc. I ordered Doetsch's other three books right after finishing that one.

"The Thieves of Heaven" definitely held my interest. Considering this was his first book, I thought it was astonishingly well done. Great well developed characters, superb descriptive passages. The storyline held together and was pretty darn frightening.

Okay, there were some details that weren't quite as well researched as they should have been but that is not only the author's fault but his editing team. To me, the indiscrepancies didn't distract me terribly from the flow of the story, and I surely hope he does better in The Thieves of Faith and The 13th Hour. I do feel he had polished his writing skills a lot by the time he wrote "The Thieves of Darkness".

I enjoyed this first book in the series at least as much as the third and that usually doesn't happen. Some reader/reviewers were upset when they read part of the book and then realized it was a religion-based thriller(you would have thought the title might have given a hint, if not the book descriptions).

Fantastic read!!!!!!!! Was literally blown away when I got this book. Has a lot of heart too. Pick this one up!!!! You wont be disappointed!!!!!!!!!! Fantastic!!!!!!

Good plot, good ancillary characters, great villain, and globe trotting scenery. The only drawback for me was that the whole cancer plot and emotions were laid on a bit too thick for my liking. I was surprised by a part of the ending, and how an obvious plot line was not followed or given the typical Hollywood treatment. One shootout scene was a bit over the top, but on a whole this was an enjoyable read and I will buy the sequel.