Thieves Till We Die - Hardcover

"Do we work for the boss, or does he own us?" The teen outlaws who first appeared in Thieves like Us (2006) return for another round of life-threatening adventures carried out in the service of their employer, Nathaniel Coldhardt, a shadowy billionaire who traffics in ancient artifacts, "which more often than not held the key to secret, spooky mysteries." This time, the team races to find a buried Aztec temple before it falls into the hands of a nefarious cult with apocalyptic goals. As in the first title, the formula mirrors an entertaining action movie. The characters (particularly the villains) are stock, and the dialogue is rife with cliches ("I think we've got company," one teen says during a chase scene). Cole breaks up the nearly nonstop action with sexual innuendo, but there's not much follow-through. The page-turning mystery's fun comes from the terrifying escapes, clever gadgetry and detailed Aztec lore, and, of course, the central cast of death-defying teen savants who discover that home is wherever they are, together. Gillian Engberg
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