The Great Pearl Heist: London's Greatest Thief and Scotland Yard's Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Necklace – Molly Caldwell Crosby (Author), Michael Page (Narrator)

Final Rating: 3/5

 “There are plenty of people who like gems with a history…”

  So many little facets that perfectly caught the light of searches and book recommendations initially drew me to this title including the narrator’s pleasant voice that seemed to match very nicely with this book but I must confess the main attraction was the chance to learn about another exquisite trinket from a favorite bygone era. Call me a history magpie but I couldn’t resist and with hours of night to work through, I decided The Great Pearl Heist: London's Greatest Thief and Scotland Yard's Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Necklace would be a great choice and keep me engaged until the end of my shifts. Well I did manage to finish and even though the idea of the narrative excellent and ambitious; I very sorry to say this title was lackluster overall and I had to stop listening a few times because I just couldn’t stay focused with this overlong news article of a true crime caper.

  Perhaps my expectations were too high or maybe the heist was just so brilliantly simplistic but this book didn’t end as a high grade narrative and I don’t know if I would recommend it to others; it was honestly an okay title and even a little forgettable. For audio books I try to rate by how well they kept me alert (or excited to hear more) and unfortunately this one had me dangerously very close to begin to nod off at one point. This book also seemed to force colorful background images in awkwardly throughout the chapters and these didn’t add anything satisfying to my imagination as I listened. I’m also sad to say, I think there may have not been enough of the pearl heist’s case to make a complete book and some rough spots were cut to fill in the gaps. I will say one or two polished filler topics caught my full attention (early forensics, fingerprinting, con tactics and of course the descriptions of the 61 perfect pearls) but the rest not so much and I can’t recommend this for night-time listeners even if they love all that sparkles in history books and enjoy a good cat-and-mouse story of true crime. 

-purchased and listened to the Audible version