Review: The Map Thief

The Map Thief by Michael Blanding

• Smiley compiled a list of 97 maps he stole at the time he went to trial in 2006, claiming he wanted to make amends for what he had done, but it soon became clear that the total number was more than that. No one knows for sure how many maps he actually stole.

• Nor does anyone know for sure when he began stealing maps. When originally apprehended he said 1998, then at trial he maintained he began in 2002. He dealt in rare maps for several years before 1998, so who really knows?

• In Smiley’s telling, his rare map gallery was burgled in 1989 and, he says he lost a quarter of a million dollars. Not having insurance, this was the beginning of his financial troubles that were well known among his fellow rare map dealers. But the author reports there are no newspaper reports of the burglary, nor could the NYPD, FBI or Interpol produce any records of having investigated. So was the burglary story perhaps Smiley’s way of hinting that his map thefts began much earlier than he was actually willing to admit?

Despite the gaps, I rate this book 3 Stars – I wasn’t completely satisfied with this book but I liked it well enough. If you have in interest in true crime / art theft stories, you might like it too.