Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It

No one had ever tried a caper like this before. The goods were kept in a secure room under constant scrutiny, deep inside a crowded building with guards at the exits. The team picked for the job included two old hands known only as Paul and Swede, but all depended on a fresh face, a kid from Pinetown, North Carolina. In the Depression, some fellows were willing to try anything — even a heist in the rare book room of the New York Public Library.

In Thieves of Book Row, Travis McDade tells the...