One Last Job

by Tom Pettifor, Nick Sommerlad

One Last Job: the extraordinary life of Brian Reader, Britain’s most prolific thief, from the Krays to Brink’s-Mat and the Hatton Garden heist.

The iconic £14million Hatton Garden raid of 2015 has already entered criminal folklore.

This book cuts through the myth to reveal the astonishing true-life story of its elderly mastermind, Brian Reader.

Gang insiders, family, friends and detectives talk for the first time about Reader’s six-decade career, from mixing with the Krays and the cream of the London underworld to an ill-fated collaboration with violent gangster Kenny Noye.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

350 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2016

Reviews

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about mainly the Hatton Garden heist in England, but also gives a lot of history about different criminals and bigger “jobs” they pulled off through the decades. It also details back when many of the police were crooked and for a price would look the other way, allowing the criminals to do their dirty business unmolested. It gives a good accounting of the Hatton Garden heist, which came very close to being busted, and was a pretty brilliant job.

I found this a very engaging read and would suggest it for anyone who likes this type of book about criminals plotting a bank heist, true crime, etc. set in England. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, authors Tom Pettifor & Nick Sommerlad, and the publisher.

My BookZone blog:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20...

[Chris Steeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘In the basement (of Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.) was the vault. Built in 1948, it held 999 locked safety-deposit boxes that were entombed in a layer of steel, 20-inches of reinforced concrete and protected by a two-foot-thick Chubb door that weighed 10 tonnes. The custom-made portal had two combination locks and a key. Just to reach the vault door you had to pass through five locked doors and two sliding iron gates. Not to mention the state-of-the art CCTV system and digital alarm linked to a central headquarters that was programmed to activate within 60 seconds of a break-in’.

The mastermind behind the break-in of this vault was the country’s most prolific burglar. 76-year-old, Brian Reader. Reader refused to speak with the authors but they were able to speak with his friends and relations about what went on over that hot Easter holiday in 2015.

The book starts off really well providing an interesting biography of Reader from his poverty-stricken roots up to a big raid on a Lloyds Bank basement vault in Baker Street in 1971 but a quarter of the way through it dives into his associates and other burglars. The authors go over the supergrasses and corrupt police at that time and I lost a bit of interest as it just turned into a jumble of names and prison sentences and I felt that the momentum dropped and I just wanted to get past this section. Fortunately, it does get past this to once again follow Reader just like the Criminal Intelligence Unit were doing.

The audacious “Ocean’s Eleven” style heist involving pensioners and not Brad Pitt and George Clooney is quite remarkable. Years in the planning but the actual burglary was anything but straight-forward. A quote at the time was ‘analogue criminals in a digital age’.

It is an intriguing story but the actual book is not as exciting as the reality. That being said it provides the facts in a chronological fashion and you do feel that you know the protagonists a little better. You can get a lot of the heist detail from free news websites but what you don’t get is the biography of Reader and that was an interesting part of this book for me.

[Chloe Porsche Utley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book with great details about the gang that carried out the Hatton garden heist. If you have seen the many films and tv series surrounding the heist, this book gives you more background information as to the people involved and how they came to work together.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was asked to review by Nudge books,

Interesting story of Brian Reader the notorious thief takes the reader through the Brinks -Mat, Hatton Garden the east end Kray twins and gives the reader the inside story of this notorious thief - his life and thinking behind what he was involved in.

Although well written and a good read I cannot feel sorry for these and the other guys involved in these terrible crimes - it is becoming history and the book makes interesting reading and the history of this and characters such as the Krays does make interesting reading. I am mindful innocent people did get hurt along the way too. It happened so it was interesting from their stance what made them do this and the reader will be shocked at times too.

Recommended and interesting read

[D NEWTON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Very informative reading
Found a lot more information in this book would recommend it as highly readable and at a good price

[Katie Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read on Brian Reader and his life of crime.

[Jonathan Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads too much like a newspaper article at times. However that’s to be expected as both writers are journalists. Other than that a very good book on an interesting subject.

[Bobby24 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book always interesting Brian and Basil got a raw deal by those other fucking amateurs, some guys are paid from the neck up and some guys are paid from the neck down.

[Elite Group · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a 5-star book!!

Well written, funny, sad, good characters, everything a book should have.

One Last Job is the story of the Hatton Garden Heist in 2015. A number of elderly criminals decide to do one last job. Lead by Brian Reader the gang attempted to rob a vault full of security boxes.

Not my usual type of book but I really enjoyed it, the book explores the lives of Brian and the other members before the heist. The book flows nicely right to the end, and you swing from wanting to achieve their goal to wanting them to be caught.

I was a little sad at the end for the days of Gentlemen Criminals, ‘old Lags’ and Porridge.

Helen

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

[Martha Brindley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Giveaway and I was not disappointed. Written with humour and full of great characters. A behind the scenes look at the London underworld of the Krays, Brinks-Mat robbery and the Hatton Garden robbery. Not just from the bad guys but from the good guys too. Great writing from two excellent journalists. Not forgetting the undercover officer who tragically lost his life., thoughts to his family. Huge thanks to Goodreads for my book. I recommend this book to lovers of true crime reads.

[Trevor Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read, with great detail.

The detailed history of Brian Reader (as far as it can be), together with touches of contemporary criminality, makes for a thorough story. In fact the cross referring, to and from, different sources and characters is worth a re-read to reinforce the links across criminals. Very well written, just one typo I think, flows well, and easy to ingest. One wonders if a follow-up would be possible, especially given the names allegedly still involved in criminality. Anyway, very good.

[Hayley Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book flows easily to become a captivating read from start to finish.It is one of those too where even though you know you shouldn't you side with the villians and temporarily become part of their world.It is then you step back and think this was real life and it has happened that puts you back on the side of good at the end .I enjoyed this book courtesy of a Good Reads giveaway .

[morton connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant read could not put it down born and lived in this era near true account went to school with a couple of villains

Good read could not put it down Born and lived in this era , near true. account went to same life school with a couple of these villians

[Sukhy Chohan]

Interesting but lacked substance in places

Gave it 3 stars interesting but lacked substance in places certainly worth a read. Had the deeper insight have bee obtained the book would have been real cracker.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love true crime and was so pleased when I won this book recently in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

All I am saying is that this book had me gripped from start to finish. Recommended.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, all about the Brink's Mat robbery, the lead up to and what was done.

[Ruairí Gildernew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth a read

A good enough tale of the derring do of the old school East end gangster of yesteryear. Well worth a read.

[Cristie Underwood]

The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. There were many facts that I only discovered after reading this!

[david a mcloughlin]

An accurate account of event's, although if you have seen the numerous accounts that have been televised there will be nothing new.

[Morag Cooper]

Very good book very well told

Very good book very well written and told kept to the bare facts no exaggeration very gripping story couldn't wait to read it every night

[Andrew Suter · Rating 4 out of 5]

More a bio

More a life biography of Brian Reader than an account of the the Hatton Garden burglary. Still an enjoyable read.