Urban fantasy heist / supernatural action-comedy.
Think John Wick meets The Witching Hour with a dash of Ocean's 8 and Constantine. The tone balances stylish magic-fueled action, dark humor, and slick underworld energy - blending mysticism, art theft, and irreverent banter among thieves and witches.
"Thief" follows Lucifer, a supernatural art thief who steals enchanted objects for her mentor, Dr. Brenda Hughes. During one of her heists, Lucifer crosses paths with Tarrant Rivia, a handsome sorcerer whose charm barely conceals his danger. Their encounter sets off a series of magical and romantic entanglements that mix erotic tension, spellcraft, and high-stakes burglary.
Lucifer's team - including Raina, her reluctant intern, and later betrayed by Mother Shipton, a revived witch - pulls off elaborate, reality-bending jobs. They use spells, enchanted gadgets, and quick wit to steal cursed artworks and ancient relics from the occult elite.
Behind the heists lies something larger: a hidden war among magic users, collectors, and demons. Lucifer's "jobs" are really steps in an unseen chess game orchestrated by Brenda - and possibly by the magical forces inhabiting the stolen art.
The tone blends slick crime style with supernatural chaos - fast-paced, irreverent, and character-driven, full of sensual dialogue, dark humor, and mythic energy cloaked in modern grit.
Laura Steinberg is a special effects artist working on film sets in Seattle, crafting lifelike prosthetics and cinematic illusions. By day, she builds monsters for the screen. By night, she uses those same skills for a different purpose: impersonating elderly people to recoup money that was fraudulently taken from them. It isn't legal, but the commission help support her mother's expensive cancer treatments.
When Laura takes on a case involving a charming financial advisor siphoning funds from his aging clients, she executes her smartest recovery yet. But the heist draws the attention of the FBI and of Kiran Müller, the reclusive CEO of a biotech company whose daughter was murdered twenty years ago. Müller offers Laura something no one else can: full coverage of her mother's treatment and legal protection, in exchange for one month living at his Lake Tahoe estate to reconstruct the final days of his daughter's life.
What begins as an assignment quickly unravels into a psychological maze. The more Laura uncovers, the more she realizes Müller is not simply seeking answers he is controlling the narrative. Someone in the house is lying. Someone wants her there. And someone knows the truth behind Laura's own past.
As Laura's disguises shift from tool to identity, she must confront the central question at the heart of Müller's offer:
When we become who we pretend to be, what part of the original self disappears?
THE PEOPLE WE THINK WE ARE explores identity, surveillance, deception, and the stories we construct to survive ourselves. I believe it will appeal to readers of Alex Michaelides, Frieda McFadden, Tana French, and Lisa Jewell.
https://youtu.be/pQy7BWKy7Qg?si=SlFCH7z7AiilmFN7