To Catch a Thief is the story of John Robie, an American expatriate much accustomed to life in France. A trained acrobat, he made a living before the war as a notorious jewel thief who came to be known in the newspapers as “Le Chat.” After eventually slipping up and getting caught, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Fate intervenes in the form of the German army, who release all the inmates in a bid to inculcate chaos in the streets, not suspecting that the inmates were Frenchmen first and felons second. Robie and the other inmates constituted their own wing of the French Resistance, for which service the post-war government tentatively agreed to look the other way when it came to them going back to finish their prison sentences.
At the start of David Dodge’s novel, Robie is retired comfortably in the French countryside, but there is a problem: a string of burglaries have been committed in the area that bear all the hallmarks of his crimes. The police draw the natural conclusion that Robie has come out of retirement, especially after he flees on the verge of his arrest. He goes to see an old friend for help leaving the country, but there he is informed of the repercussions of his flight. The police are shaking down his fellow former inmates, looking for information on Robie and generally making life tough on them. Robie’s friend prevails on him not to leave France, but to instead stay and try to catch the copycat-burglar himself.
Thinking like a criminal again, Robie heads to Cannes, posing as an American tourist so he can scope out the other guests for likely targets for the new jewel thief. He quickly lands on a rich widow, Mrs. Stevens, and her daughter, Francie. Mrs. Stevens is a gregarious, trusting woman who cavorts around the resort wearing jewels insured at over 70,000 pounds by a London insurance firm. Her daughter is taciturn and cold, refusing to wear so much as a single piece of jewelry. Francie and her mother both latch onto Robie quickly, complicating his effort to anticipate the thief’s movements.
Of course, many of you are familiar with this story not from having read the book, but from seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Reading the novel, it’s obvious why the Master of Suspense decided to adapt it. The premise is inherently compelling and Dodge’s prose is great at building tension. As a fan of the film I also appreciated that Dodge included a little more background about the wartime record of Robie and the other inmates. It strengthened the narrative.
Whether you’re a fan of the film or haven’t ever seen it, To Catch a Thief has a lot to offer. It’s a real jewel.
