Lawrence Sanders (1920-1998) began his hugely successful writing career in 1969 with this groundbreaking book, which won the Edgar Award for best first novel. Yes, it may seem a little dated now and parts of it read a little like an episode of a 1970's TV crime show, but it is still a fantastic first novel by any standards.Sanders takes the approach of an author investigating a crime committed in New York on the night of the 31st August/ morning of 1 September 1968 and all the writing is assembled from eyewitness reports, records of court proceedings, penal institutions and investigative agencies, tape recordings from surveillance devices (which, rather unbelievably are simply everywhere, but we will give the author artistic licence!), personal correspondence, newspaper reports, official reports and the authors own experiences.This is an old fashioned heist, in which John "Duke" Anderson assembles a team, and mafia funding, to help him plan an audacious robbery. He plans to rob not one apartment in an upscale block, but all of them. However, it is never possible to plan for every eventuality and things do not go as expected... This is an exciting and well written mystery with great characters. It is also the novel which introduces Sanders most famous character - Captain Edward X Delaney. Although he only enters the storyline near the end, he is the main character in the next novel The First Deadly Sin (The Edward X. Delaney Series). I am delighted to see these books re-released on kindle for a new audience.
My husband's grandfather sent me a Sanders novel, but I saw that it was part of a series starring this detective Delaney (who doesn't make an appearance until the end) and I hate to go out of order; so I started with this one. The audiobook is read but a full cast of narrators, which was very different for me and a lot of fun.It's such an interesting, modern epistolary type of book, but I doubt that I'd say anything more than what's already been said, since this it's been around for so long But the way Sanders pieces together the story was compelling and felt fresh, even forty some odd years later. I really liked Duke and his gang of thieves, and I'd love to sit Sanders down (at a table with the other dead writers I'd be hosting for a literary dinner party from beyond) and pick his brain about how he chose to use which surveillance pieces where to come out with the story in the way it ultimately unfolded. I wonder if he saw the entire story first and then cut it up, or started with each bit of "tape" or document. Either way, it was a spectacular way to increase tension and just have a whole lot of fun with narrative. Read it and enjoy.
Do You like book The Anderson Tapes (1987)?
This book is a little dated, but is still a very interesting story. Although the novel is a work of fiction, it reads like a actual crime in progress. The story takes place in New York during the late 60's and if you put that in perspective you can compare advances in technology and police procedures of today. During the 60's this type of crime could actually have taken place. The author Lawrence Sanders told the story from a crime writers perspective including eyewitness reports, government and police records, wiretap tape recordings and victim interviews. The story starts out as a typical old time robbery/burglary that escalates into a much larger ingenious crime. The story contains involvement by many different types of criminals including Mafia figures, to old fashioned safe crackers, strong arm men, experts in the field of antiques, and small time thiefs. You almost feel sorry for the main character, Duke Anderson, and hope he succeeds. There is a very interesting cast of characters, and the story is very well written. If you appreciate old time mysteries you will love this story.
—Danny M
The low rating here may just be the result of bad timing. I read this book in the time I moved and so reading it was bumped for a litany of reasons. I'm only aware of this book because of the brilliant movie that adapted it. The style is fascinating in theory as there is no prose in this book. Everything in this book is a transcript from a wire tap or a police or FBI report. This solves the problem of flowery prose that drags down most books. However, I just found this to be hard to get into when it got into the robbery itself. It's hard to read people's accounts of what happened without actually seeing it. There are also 3-5 too many characters and it was difficult to know who they all were. So, a cool idea but the execution could have been better. I know Goodreads will hate this but I say rent the movie.
—Ed
Exactly. People must remember how old the The Anderson Tapes book is . Its a bit outdated but in the early 70's it was pretty cool. The Sins series are Saunders real gems.
—Noelle
