(3.75/5 stars)

Culprits is a crime thriller anthology of short stories edited by Gary Phillips and Richard Brewer. It follows a crew of professional thieves after they go their separate ways after the biggest heist of their lives.

This book really caught (and kept!) my attention and I practically read it in one sitting. I loved the whole idea of this anthology and how it was put together. The editors wrote "The Heist," and then individual authors chose one character each to write about what happened to them after. It absolutely felt like one through line of a story even though there were seven authors involved in addition to the editors: Jessica Kaye, Zoë Sharp, David Corbett, Manuel Ramos, Joe Clifford, Brett Battles, and Gar Anthony Haywood.

As with most anthologies, I liked some short stories better than others. My two standout favorites were "The Wife" by Zoë Sharp and "Hector" by Richard J. Brewer. I really liked that the editors finished out the collection with "All Debts Paid," which ties the whole anthology neatly with a bow.

If the name of the book sounds familiar to you, it's also a hit tv show on Disney+ and Hulu! I definitely plan to check it out to see how it fares as live action media.

If you like books that feature morally gray characters who aren't above a bit of betrayal amongst friends, you should absolutely pick up this character-driven heist anthology.

Thank you to Datura for sending me an e-Arc of Culprits. Here are my thoughts on the novel!

A lot of crime novels that I have read are hyper-focused on the planning and action of the crime. Culprits does things a little differently. Instead, we are focused on seeing what happens to these criminals after their mega-heist is over. It is told short-story anthology style, with a different author providing the aftermath for a different character.

I love reading anthologies as I find it’s a great way to learn about new authors in a genre you enjoy. Sometimes there will be some authors, stories or characters that don’t stick with you as much but that wasn’t the case in Culprits. Each story was memorable, and each character stood out. The editors also did a fantastic job of finding a way to blend the character storylines together as you read through the character tales.

I think using a heist is also a great idea, because there is a ton of action and a variety of good guys and bad guys, not to mention some fiery and strong female characters. After reading through this collection, I want to check out the show and see if it compares! I’m excited to google some of the authors included in this collection to see what else I can read from them next!

I love reading crime related books and this one really stood out to me, having different writers really kept this story exciting, I felt each story led on really well from the previous one too.