Customer Reviews

Under the Streets of Nice: The Bank Heist of the Century

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Rather confusingly, this brief and engaging true crime chronicle (it is NOT a novel) has appeared in English under three different titles over the years: The Heist of the Century, Under the Streets of Nice, and The Gentleman of 16 July. To make things even more confusing, although the book was largely the work of French journalists writing under the pseudonym Rene Maurice, some editions prominently bear the name of bestselling thriller-writer Ken Follett on the cover. As Follett explains on his web site, the original translated manuscript was a mess, and he was hired (before he was an established brand) to "fix" it. He spent about two weeks on it and since then has more or less disavowed it: " Not only was it not my best effort, it was well below what I could do.... It's still not a good book, but I turned a completely unpublishable manuscript into something more or less respectable."

More or less respectable is more or less accurate, the prose is far from great, but the story itself is absolutely fascinating. It tells of an astounding bank heist in Nice, France in the summer of 1976. A gang of twenty criminals, under the direction of a self-mythologizing right-wing dreamer named Albert Spaggiari spent two months digging a 25-foot tunnel from the city sewer system into a bank vault. Once in, they proceeded to spend the weekend breaking into safe deposit boxes before leaving with some $8 to $10 million in cash, gold, and jewelry and daubing the phrase "sans haine, sans violence et sans arme" on the wall! The book focuses on the heist and the small details that led to Spaggiari's eventual capture. He's a fascinating figure, an ex-paratrooper, OAS member who came within a phone call of assassinating President de Gaulle, but also a photographer who rubbed shoulders with the city elite and had connections with the underworld. The improbable end to the story includes his escape from imprisonment and subsequent flight to Paraguay, where he lived a life of high style and luxury.

The book speaks frequently about how Spaggiari heist and escape was received with general applause by the European public, and how he became a kind of folk hero. Much of this can be attributed to the general human affection for those who poke fun at the authorities (Spaggiari granted numerous magazine interviews until his death in 1989, always taunting the police) without causing any violence. But this obscures the rather darker question surrounding his connection to underground far-right organizations. The book is a little frustrating due to murkiness surrounding the affair. There are some disturbing mistakes made by the police and several indications that Spaggiari was well-connected to France's right-wind elite. In the following years, there were several similar heists elsewhere in France and Europe, including one executed only a month after the Nice job and thus could not possibly be a copycat. There's even an appearance by the CIA!

It would be interesting to know if any further details have come to light in subsequent years. Spaggiari has written at least one memoir of his own (Fric-frac: The Great Riviera Bank Robbery) but this is not likely to be very truthful. The entire affairs is perfectly suited to the movies, and indeed, a French film called Les égouts du paradis (The Sewers of Paradise) was released in 1979. More recently, there are some indications that Warner Bros. is developing a new version with the title "Under the Streets of Nice".

It's fun, it's brilliant, the author as the main person are both geniuses and it's a true story

This novel is a translation from a book originally written in French. Ken is the third author that attempted to translate this book into English. Visit the Ken Follett web site and learn the story behind this book. It's also titled The Heist of the Century and The Gentlemen of 16 July. Ken considers this book "a nightmare" that won't go away and he doesn't even recommend buying it.

"Under the Streets of Nice" is an account of a bank heist of about $8-$10 million in cash, gold, and jewlry which occurred in Nice France, in 1976. The burglary was accomplished by a gang of by a 20 led by Albert Spaggiari. Perhaps the most interesting point is that Spaggiari did not evade arrest, but subsequently successfully escaped, and thereafter openly and flamboyantly lived in Paraguay.

This is not a novel, nor historical fiction, the account is almost entirely documentary style, although the description of breaking into the vault is clearly fictionalized. At points it seems that every other sentence begins with "And", or "But", and the French narrator of the audio version hits each one of these as though led by a drum roll.

It is what it is: An interesting account of a real event which is "stranger than fiction"--if not so well written as fiction. If you like non-fiction accounts of real events, this is pretty good.

I don't know why Follett would "disavow" this book. It may not be great fiction or even fiction, but it's a nice little thriller or mystery.

This was written many, many years ago based on a true crime, and you should put yourself in 1973 or whenever this was written when you read it.

Fans of Ken Follett should get this book.