looking for books that feature elaborate schemes

October 21, 2024 7:05 PM

the general vibe I'm hoping for is stuff like the sting or ocean's 11, but it doesn't have to be a heist

genre wise, anything goes, though I have a mild preference for fantasy. I don't mind stuff that is heavy at parts, but I'd prefer stuff that isn't too dark (if you're unsure, just make the recommendation and let me know).

beyond that, really I'm open to anything, I like to keep things broad with book recs, especially something like this

and just to underscore, while I think heist type things are obvious, I could imagine stuff about like...particularly brilliant political maneuvering, or military strategy, or like spies, all working. I just want elaborate schemes and plots and whatnot, ideally in an enjoyable and well-enough written package

posted by wooh to Writing & Language (34 answers total)

This is a young adult/middle grades novel, but The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid (which is extremely dense for a middle grades book) is about several schemes and is at its best when it's scheming.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 7:07 PM on October 21

See if anything in TV Tropes: The Caper/Literature piques your interest- fantasy options include Locke Lamorra and Six of Crows, which might both trend somewhat dark and grimy?
posted by zamboni at 7:41 PM on October 21 [5 favorites]

I'm remember loving The Great Train Robbery so much that I read it twice. Short and fast-paced with lots of neat details, from what I remember from reading it last 20 years ago.
posted by msbrauer at 8:05 PM on October 21 [8 favorites]

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
posted by lizard music at 8:15 PM on October 21 [11 favorites]

Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series excels at this. The Thief is middle grade fantasy, but the series rapidly scales up in maturity from there, and I find The Thief is still an enjoyable read as an adult. Try to avoid spoilers!

This is a slow burn in terms of the maneuvering that's happening, but Dorothy Dunnett's historical fiction book/series Niccolo Rising.
posted by yasaman at 8:26 PM on October 21 [10 favorites]

The Hot Rock, by Donald Westlake, is a comedic take on the heist story and it’s a ton of fun.
posted by Slinga at 8:36 PM on October 21 [7 favorites]

Hostage One by David Fisher. It’s a fiction book about a plot to kidnap the president.
posted by azpenguin at 9:14 PM on October 21

For fantasy (of an "other world history") sort, there's The Engineer Trilogy. An engineer is sentenced to death for the crime of invention. He escapes, and plots his way back home. At any cost.
posted by SPrintF at 9:32 PM on October 21 [4 favorites]

• All of Donald Westlake's Dortmunder books have great elaborate schemes, though they often go awry. The one mentioned by Slinga above, The Hot Rock, is generally considered the best but they're short and there are a lot of them.
• The Arsène Lupin stories are so much fun and have a whole bunch of good crimes
• Elle Machray's Remember, Remember is an alternate history with a plot to bring down the British Empire (it gets quite bleak in parts)
• Sophie Wan's Women of Good Fortune has three women plotting a heist to steal the gifts from the wedding of one of them
• Naomi Novik's Scholomance books (magic students trapped in a deadly school, basically) have a bunch of logistical problems with clever solutions, and the complexity of the problems and solutions really ramps up across the three books
• K.J. Parker tends slightly bleak as well but he has a lot of fantasy-adjacent complicated-logistics novels where a clever person comes up with a way to do a thing. (There's no magic, but they're set in places that don't exist and that have general ancient-to-medieval Europe-ish vibes). Try eg Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (or the first Engineer book as suggested by SPrintF above) and if you like that he has a whole bunch of other similar novels to be getting on with. (His women characters are generally a bit weirdly written.)
• The Queen's Thief series mentioned above is a good call
• Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor often comes up as a recommendation in contexts like this - the protagonist unexpectedly ends up as emperor and has to figure out how to do court intrigue, and turns out to be pretty good at it

posted by severalbees at 9:59 PM on October 21 [9 favorites]

Martha Wells' The Death of the Necromancer has plenty of this! She's currently well known for her Murderbot science fiction series, but this is gaslamp fantasy.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 10:18 PM on October 21 [4 favorites]

Thirding Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novels. Hilarious. Bad News and Good Behaviour spring to mind.
The Fake Museum by Ronin Parker
Metzger's Dog by Thomas Perry
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:34 PM on October 21

John Scalzi's recent book Starter Villain.
posted by mullacc at 10:49 PM on October 21 [6 favorites]

There is the classic Operation Mincemeat story. It would be hard to find a more elaborate scheme than that.
posted by snarfois at 1:48 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

Several by KJ Charles would work. The one that comes to mind is The Duke at Hazard, though it is the second in a series. But lots of hers have conspiracies and complex plots.

A couple by Jenny Crusie would also meet the criteria - Faking It, for instance, which has heist elements.

Some of Lois McMaster Bujold has twisty plots, too. You could try Cetaganda.

John le Carré? Or PG Wodehouse has complicated schemes, often about stealing cow creamers or the like. Trollope's more political novels?

Did anything in your previous question work? Not casting shade, realise it's a slightly different question, but wondered if there's anything there we could build on.
posted by paduasoy at 2:02 AM on October 22 [2 favorites]

It’s been a while since I read them, but I think the original Bourne books would fit this criteria. Even if you’ve seen the movies (which I very much like), the books are a lot more detailed. I read them after seeing the movies and still loved the books.
posted by sillysally at 2:15 AM on October 22

How about the Slow Horses series? And I third the Dortmunder series.
posted by Ollie at 3:25 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

Connie Willis has enjoyable, twisty plot schemes, in a historical, mildly sci fi vein - try Doomsday Book, or To say nothing but the dog.
posted by happyfrog at 3:35 AM on October 22 [6 favorites]

David Liss writes really entertaining historical fiction with a lot of plots and schemes and double-crossing often with an economic or business angle. I particularly liked The Coffee Trader and The Whiskey Rebels.
posted by tybstar at 3:36 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots features elaborate scheming. Content warning for body horror.

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan also includes lots of evil schemes.
posted by unicorn chaser at 5:08 AM on October 22

Seconding The Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels by Scott Lynch! All scheming all the time.
posted by picopebbles at 5:46 AM on October 22 [5 favorites]

If you like fantasy then Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is a heist story.
posted by Awfki at 5:53 AM on October 22

The Count of Monte Cristo is really one huge elaborate scheme with a bunch of elaborate sub-schemes, with revenge as the motive. Hugely enjoyable!
posted by london explorer girl at 7:37 AM on October 22 [2 favorites]

Ann Leckie is great at this—her Imperial Radch series and The Raven Tower are two that could fit the bill.
posted by brook horse at 8:06 AM on October 22 [3 favorites]

SS-GB by Len Deighton
posted by dhruva at 9:52 AM on October 22

Maybe M.A. Carrick's (AKA Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms) Rook and Rose trilogy starting with Mask of Mirrors?
posted by scorbet at 10:09 AM on October 22

The Westing Game. Great for kids, great for adults.
posted by moosetracks at 11:31 AM on October 22 [5 favorites]

Nthing The Lies of Locke Lamora etc. and Fingersmith (it's not fantasy, but the vibes aren't that dissimilar).
posted by wintersweet at 11:31 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

T. Kingfisher’s Clockwork Boys trilogy
posted by Kriesa at 1:00 PM on October 22 [2 favorites]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (by Mark Twain) might fit the bill - it's a time travel story where the main character uses his ingenuity and remembered inventions from the future (i.e., his past) to become rather powerful.

I didn't like it much myself, but it might be fun to have a classic among the more recent stuff that's been recommended. It does get dark at times, as part of the satire.
posted by demi-octopus at 2:38 PM on October 22 [1 favorite]

Absolutely Westing Game fits in this category and is a great, great romp. Although if my memory serves, it is a bit dated/offensive in how it portrays Asian immigrants. (I may be wrong, it’s been a few years.)

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts also has a similar multilayered puzzle structure to it.
posted by samthemander at 4:09 PM on October 22

Portrait of a Thief by Grace Li
Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
posted by 168 at 2:55 AM on October 23

I think of The Great Escape as a tremendous heist.
posted by knile at 3:34 AM on October 23

Howard Marks - Mr. Nice
posted by fridgebuzz at 10:08 AM on October 23

Mod note: [btw, this post has drawn the attention of certain individuals who have quietly added it to the sidebar and Best Of blog before disappearing into the crowd.]
posted by taz (staff) at 12:41 AM on October 26