Mon 1 Sep 2025
Reviewed by David Vineyard: MARK O’NEILL – To Catch a Spy.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
MARK O’NEILL – To Catch a Spy. Poisoned Pen Press, softcover, 2025.
We open on the Riviera, John Robie, the Cat, is pursuing a man who just fired at him across the roof of the Hotel Carlton:
And just like that, he fell to his death.
One year has passed and once again John Robie, le Chat, the famed jewel thief and Resistance hero is back on a roof pursuing a fugitive, this time for his aristocratic friend Paul Du Pre who Robie had asked to help him reconnect with Francine “Francie” Stevens, the American heiress who had helped him clear his name of a series of crimes on the Riviera and then mysteriously left as their romance heated up.
As a favor John agreed to break into a room in the Hotel Carlton and check on a man, and now the man has fired at him and fled across the roof falling to his death.
To make manners worse the policeman called in is Le Pic, the officer who thought a year earlier he finally had a noose around the neck of the infamous Cat only to be humiliated when Robie broke a criminal ring of jewel thieves copying Robie’s pre war exploits.
Le Pic would like to arrest Robie, but De Pre is not only wealthy and an aristocrat, he is also tied to counter-intelligence and the man who just fell to his death may be an enemy agent.
To Catch a Spy is the Estate Approved sequel to the novel To Catch a Thief by David Dodge and the film by Alfred Hitchcock with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
The film is a classic and hardly needs to be mentioned, but the novel it is based upon needs a bit more introduction. Author David Dodge was a noted travel writer who brought a fresh perspective to his works with his photographic skills and because he traveled his post war haunts with his wife and family in tow.
In addition to his travel books he was a mystery writer of some note, writing the hard-boiled CPA series about Ira Whitney (Death and Taxes), tales of American Private Eye and relic hunter Al Colby in Central America (Plunder in the Sun), tough Secret Service agent John Lincoln (Hooligan), and stand-alone thrillers like La Carambola and his most famous work, To Catch a Thief.
I first bonded with my then writing partner Nicholas Boving, a fellow Seven League Booter, over our mutual appreciation of Dodge, who has not had the respect he deserves, though Plunder was reprinted by Hard Case Crime along with one last posthumous novel,, and To Catch a Thief has been reprinted numerous times since it first came out
Dodge’s tongue’n-cheek approach to crime, adventure, and travel mixed with his easy gift for characterization and plot coming from it made him a perfect companion for travel and relaxing escapist reading, so it was with some trepidation I approached a sequel to his most famous work no matter how much it deserved one.
Happily Mark O’Neill pulls it off, picking up one year after the events in the original, and like the original, plunging our hero into action and danger on page one. This time Robie must use his old skills to negotiate the treacherous world of spies, but also his troubled relationship with Francie Stevens, the American heiress who got cold feet and abandoned him a year earlier.
Now Francie is returning to the Riviera with a fashion show and Alex, a new fiance, and before he can hope to reconnect with her Robie has to deal with the fact she is almost certainly a part of the spy ring he has found himself committed to breaking before they kill him.
Relying on old allies and avoiding old enemies like Le Pic, Robie must uncover the leaders of the spy ring and hopefully clear Francie, if she is innocent, while on the run and unsure why Francie has turned on him.
The good news is the book is a perfect balance between Dodge’s novel and the fairly faithful adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock, screen writer John Michael Hayes and his team. For a first novel the writing is assured, pleasantly straight forward, and aware of the big shoes it is filling without being self conscious about it.
Chances are if you love the movie or the book this will be a satisfying chance to spend time with the characters in a new adventure.
The book isn’t perfect. It is a bit long at 345 pages, probably to be expected in today’s publishing world, and I don’t agree with every editorial choice made, but it is also remarkable in that it finds a balance between the novel and film (close as they are, there are major differences) without shorting either.
“The public knows him as a burglar, but let me tell you, John Robie is one of a kind…” So were David Dodge and Alfred Hitchcock, and neither should be disappointed by this tribute to their accomplishments. Like the originals To Catch a Spy is froth and fun, and has just enough of an edge and just enough twists and turns to be perfect escapist reading with a mix of glamour, humor, romance, suspense, and thrills.
It’s champagne, and pink champagne at that, a Brut, a dessert wine and not a vintage, but it tickles the nose and lightly intoxicates, and it makes a pleasant escape from grim reality and cozy domesticity.
September 2nd, 2025 at 8:18 pm
Other reviews agree with you, David, and the book is selling well (according to Amazon), but to me it seems like too long a time to be writing a sequel to an obscure book from so long ago.
But I guess that’s just me. Or, in other words, good for them!
Also from Amazon:
About the Author
Mark O’Neill’s debut novel, To Catch a Spy, is the official sequel to To Catch a Thief. Before turning to writing, Mark was a toy designer, a newspaper columnist, a marketing executive, and, most recently, a private investigator. You can follow Mark’s writing journey on X (formerly Twitter) at @JohnRobieIsBack. He lives with his wife in Bluffton, South Carolina, where he is having fun writing his second To Catch a Thief novel.
September 2nd, 2025 at 9:10 pm
I would agree about the timing if not for the famous film which like THE MALTESE FALCON, THE BIG SLEEP, or a few others somewhat negates the problem, and it isn’t as if the book is obscure or out of print if the rest of Dodge’s books were. It’s had at least three major reprintings in trade paperback since it first came out and sold well in all three.
There have been successful sequels and prequels to far more obscure novels. This one, if not a bestseller, was a major success when first released. If not quite a genre classic it is at least a classic of its kind and one of the most often copied plots in the genre.
September 2nd, 2025 at 11:22 pm
I’ve read THIEF, and you’re right, it’s a good one. But, and this is my opinion only, and it can be changed, if it weren’t for the movie, it would be remembered by only a small number of friends. All of whom are reading this blog. I hope so, anyway!
September 2nd, 2025 at 9:16 pm
So far I’ve only read David Dodge’s Whit Whitney books, which I really like a lot. I generally shy away from contemporary literature, as there is very little that I find has an authentic voice. Though I don’t like war, one thing about it is that it seems to have a habit of knocking the b.s. out of its participants, producing a generation of authorial voices bereft of irony and subterfuge.
e.g. WWII Servicemen turned noirboiled writers:
Clifton Adams, Marvin Albert, David Alexander, Robert Edmond Alter, William Ard, Ledru Baker Jr., Linton Baldwin, Earl Basinsky, Stephen Becker, Ben Benson, Edgar Box/Cameron Kay (Gore Vidal), Gil Brewer, Richard Brooks (later to become a successful director in Hollywood), Wenzell Brown, R.V. Cassill, Elliott Chaze, Robert Colby, Jonathan Craig, Ovid Demaris, David Dodge, Stanley Ellin, Walter Ericson (Howard Fast), Louis Falstein, Julius Fast, Ferguson Findley, A.S. Fleishman, Fletcher Flora, Samuel Fuller (better-known as a film director), William Campbell Gault, Richard Gehman, Dave Gerrity, Walt Grove, Donald Hamilton, Arnold Hano, Lindsay Hardy, W.L. Heath, Basil Heatter, Tony Hillerman, Richard Himmel, Vechel Howard, E. Howard Hunt (who would become notorious as the mastermind of the Watergate break-in), William Krasner, Ed Lacy (Len Zinberg), Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain (Salvatore Lombino), John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar), William P. McGivern, Thomas McGrath (also an important left-wing poet), James McKimmey, John McPartland, Floyd Mahannah, Richard Matheson, Wade Miller (Bob Wade and Bill Miller), Brian Moore, Richard Prather, Peter Rabe, John Roeburt, Edward Ronns, Sam Ross, Douglas Sanderson, Mickey Spillane, Glendon Swarthout, Robert Terrall, Ross Thomas, Charlie Wells, Lionel White, Harry Whittington, Charles Willeford, Charles Williams, Morton Wolson (Peter Paige), Edward Wood Jr. (usually remembered for his weird low-budget movies but also the author of quirky, offbeat crime novels). See https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/pdf/18870
September 2nd, 2025 at 11:18 pm
Quite the list, Tony. I grew up reading all of them, though there’s still a few thousand books by these guys I haven’t gotten to yet.
September 2nd, 2025 at 9:17 pm
I do have one caveat other than the length. At books end there are a wasted dozen pages of padding involving a reconciliation between Robie and a minor character that was a waste and, at least for me, out of character for everyone involved.