Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History

Like Watching A Heist Film

Reading this book is like watching a heist film. I read it straight through as soon as I got and even read the notes section at the end. I loved Ocean's 11 and I loved this book even more.

12 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

a delight to read

flawless was a delight to read. the cover shimmered with the colors of the rainbow and the prose inside brought to life the daring escapades of a group of high end cat burglars. if you like a good heist, you'll love flawless...

11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

Great, real life story!

Author does a great job creating a narrative around a true event! Really interesting details about the places, players, and actual crime... Reads nicely.

Plus, I got it for FREE XD.... And to the reviewer complaining about getting charged, you most likely missed the promotion (I think it was a daily, and thus one day only...) and didn't realize it. Not a reason to down rate the book!

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Great story!

Yes it does require credit card info but you will not be charged. Also I have read the interview that was in the Wired magazine a few months ago about this heist and I was hooked. This book is just a great extension to that article!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Flawless--a journey in investigative journalism

The topic is a puzzle waiting for solution. The writers do an incredible amount of research and follow-up. There are times where the story slows due to explanations and side stories. These are interesting, just slows getting to the solution. I enjoyed the bibliography almost as much as the main story due to the "insider" approach the writers took. This book would be excellent for book clubs as a variety of readers would provide a good discussion because some details in the story could be overlooked---there are lots of details. Overall, it was an interesting story and well-written.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Exciting and Entertaining Expose

Until February 15, 2003, the Antwerp Diamond Center in Brussels Belgium was considered an impenetrable fortress. And with good reason as it is located within Belgium's version of Fort Knox: the Diamond District which is secured with vehicle barriers, 24/7 video surveillance, armed patrols, and two police stations. On February 16, 2003, however, the world learned the truth when the School of Turin carried out the greatest heist in history! Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell, reveals in exquisite detail how the thieves used cunning rather than brute force to pull off the caper.

For over 27 months, career jewelry thief, Leonardo Notarbartolo, the identified ring leader (although the true leader may still be unidentified), and his Italian cronies planned the job even the Mafia passed on. Posing as a legitimate diamond dealer, Notarbartolo rented an office in the Diamond Center so that he could observe, videotape, and analyze the minutia that would result in the most expensive theft in history. As the authors note:

The slow pace and tedium of planning a heist is something most Hollywood movies rarely depict. Heist films never show the frustration of needing to wait a month or more to get a critical piece of information from the inside man, such as confirmation on the number of security guards who work during the day. They don't show the gnawing fear that something is being overlooked, or that their ideas might not work. And they don't show the interminable hours staring at blueprints and watching videotapes over and over and drawing a blank.

Thanks to Flawless, however, the truth behind the headlines is exposed. With everyday items such as hairspray, Styrofoam, duct tape, combined with precise planning the thieves managed to abscond with anywhere from with a108 million to 432 million dollars in diamonds. The exact figure remains unknown because many of the victims did not disclose their losses.

Flawless is a not-to-be-missed entertaining and exciting true crime book!



Publisher: Union Square Press (February 2, 2010), 336 pages.
Review Copy Provided Courtesy of the Publisher.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Flawless has flaws.....

Thought this would be an interesting book when I saw it as the Free Friday book so was intrigued to start reading it. Started out well, detailed but not to a point of distraction and then it dropped fast. The description of how long it takes to plan something of this magnitude was a lesson in patience and simplicity of tools that they created to complete the task at hand. But once the whole caper was over it unraveled fast - not just for the thieves but for this reader as well. Could not wait to finish and move on to another book. Would recommend to readers interested in learning about the diamond biz but not to someone looking for a good read about major crimes.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Flawless - Fascinating Read!!

This book was very fascinating read for the largest diamond heist in history. It begins in 2003 where a group of men robbed one of the most ultra-secure vaults in the diamond district in Antwerp, but was it really? You know from the very beginning of the book that at least one thief was apprehended, but you don't find out the fate of the others till closer to the end. Along the way you learn a great deal about diamonds and the diamond trade, along with safes, locks, vaults, security measures, Antwerp, and some history, there was a lot of time spent on the plot to rob the diamond district in Antwerp. It's very well written. It's seemed to be divided into two halves: the first half on how the deed was planned and pulled off, the second half is how it was solved and the actual thieves that were caught. Neither half could have occurred were it not for human error. I would highly recommend this book for it's very interesting plot.
Soon after I read the book I rented the movie called Flawless with Demi Moore and Michael Caine Where on the eve of his retirement, a disgruntled British janitor (Michael Caine), angry over his company's refusal to pay an insurance claim for his ailing wife, persuades an unhappy American executive (Demi Moore) to join him in a jewel heist. The two subsequently hatch a daring plan to steal the gems from their employer, the London Diamond Corp. Michael Radford directs this crime drama set in 1960s London and loosely based on actual events. While I thought this movie was going to be the same as the book Flawless and it didn't turn out to be that way, it was still a good movie.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

An intriguing read

This was an interesting book but it was hard to get through it. The author describes the whole planning of the heist and the details were very specific. I found the story intriguing though especially because it is based on a true story. I recommend this book but warn that it took me awhile to read all the way through it.

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Is this ok for a 13 almost 14 year old girl please tell me honestly!!!!!!!

Great Read

A well written book of an heist that no one thought could happen......but yet it did.

Once you start reading this book you will not put it down as the suspense is truly riviting as it takes you through an astonishing chain of events. At times I during the read it seemed like I was there.

highly recommend

A good read and very well researched.What men wont do???

Highly Recommended Book

Flawless takes place in modern day society where technology is important in everyday life. The book follows a group of modern day professional thieves known as "The School of Turin" have just started to embark on a long and perilous job that will reveals how they did it in a very brilliant and innovative way. A particular theme/message in the book reveals how the impossible can be done. Another is that luck can play a monumental factor in certain situations. I particularly liked how the authors organized how minor characters and details are as important to the plot as the main characters and details are. One of few things about the book that I could criticize would be that this book can be boring during certain scenes to some people. I would recommend this book to someone who has an interest in non-fiction stories that shows how people can still do the impossible in these times. I would recommend reading the authors other work "Blood Diamonds" if you like this type of book. Ultimately, I would give this book an 8.7/10.

Great read

This is the first book i read getting my nook and i must say i was very pleased

This Book Shines Like a Diamond-Highly Recommend

This book is wonderful. it is well-reseached and I love diamonds. I got a true sense of what is took to plan and pull off the heist. I liked that the reader found out what happened to everyone after the heist. I would highly recommend this true crime novel.

Highly Recommend

This is a fascinating true crime story. It's hard to believe that this happened.

amazing facts about diamond industry and italian master thieves

good read!

Interesting Book

Got this book for free on my nook and it was good. Its one of those books that is an interesting read, but you have to be in the mood for it.

FLawless..

great read of a true crime story. Makes you really wonder where those diamonds ended up.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Fun Story

This is a fascinating story worthy of Hollywood. While the authors seem to have done a lot of research, their reliance on police investigation information without any data from the criminals themselves limits the viewpoint somewhat. Having said that, it is a quite enjoyable tale, as well as a fascinating look at both the diamond trade in Antwerp and the criminal scene in Turin.