The pot thief discovers that archaeology is not nearly as cutthroat as the restaurant business A treasure hunter, pottery dealer, and occasional manufacturer of imitation American Indian artifacts, Albuquerque’s Hubie Schuze knows quite a bit about throwing clay. But ancient Native American pottery is not really intended for dining, so he is puzzled when a restaurateur comes to him asking for dinner plates. The job sounds boring, but the fee does not: $25,000 for one hundred plates for a new Austrian restaurant in Santa Fe. The owner insists Hubie relocate to the area for the duration of the job in order to soak in the restaurant atmosphere as he works. Hubie has dealt with his fair share of grave robbers, museum burglars, and cold-blooded killers, but nothing could prepare him for the infighting that goes on behind a kitchen’s doors. When the cooks start croaking, the pot thief will have to move quickly to collect his fee, save the restaurant, and escape Santa Fe alive. The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier is the 4th book in the Pot Thief Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

First in the lively, laugh-filled series featuring a New Mexico pottery dealer with a side job as an amateur sleuth. A dealer of ancient Native American pottery, Hubert Schuze has spent years combing the public lands of New Mexico, digging for artwork that would otherwise remain buried. According to the US government, Hubie is a thief—but no act of Congress could stop him from doing what he loves. For decades, Hubie has worn the title of pot thief proudly. Outright burglary, though, is another story. But an offer of $25,000 to lift a rare pot from a local museum proves too tempting for Hubie to refuse. When he sees how tightly the relic is guarded, he changes his mind, but the pot goes missing anyway. Soon a federal agent suspects that Hubie is the culprit. After things take a turn for the serious, Hubie knows he must find the real thief quickly, or risk cracking something more fragile than any pot—his skull. The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras is the 1st book in the Pot Thief Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A New Mexico pottery dealer cracks a perplexing mystery in this “winning blend of humor and character development” (Publishers Weekly). Hubert Schuze is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and he has a fairly lucrative side gig digging up ancient relics and selling them. He also seems to have a talent for finding killers. When Hubie discovers a body outside his pottery shop, it appears the victim was stabbed in the back with something resembling a screwdriver. But the story gets a lot more mysterious when a video turns up showing the man collapsing with no one else nearby. Furthermore, a slip of paper is found in his pocket, with Hubie’s name and address on it, suggesting there may be a connection between the two men—though Hubie has no idea what it could be. Now, the professor and pottery expert must put his sleuthing skills to work—while simultaneously managing his new role running the university’s art department—to piece together the shards of a baffling crime in this “breezy” novel from a winner of the Left Award for Best Humorous Mystery starring a “witty” amateur detective (Albuquerque Journal). “[A] winning series.” —Susan Wittig Albert, New York Times–bestselling author of the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries

An Albuquerque pottery dealer looking for artifacts finds murder and intrigue in this “smartly funny” series (Anne Hillerman, author of Spider Woman’s Daughter). A dealer in ancient Native American pottery, Hubert Schuze has spent years searching the public lands of New Mexico for artwork that would otherwise remain buried. According to the US government, he’s a thief, but Hubie knows the real crime would be to allow age-old traditions to die. He honors prehistoric craftspeople by resurrecting their handiwork, and nothing—not even foul play—will stop him in these three installments of the Lefty Award–winning mystery series. The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras: Hubie accepts a $25,000 offer to lift a rare pot from a local museum but changes his mind when he discovers how tightly the exhibit is being guarded. When the pot goes missing anyway, Hubie’s sent on the hunt for the real thief—and on the run from a killer. The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy: Hubie goes on a mission to recover stolen relics from a high-rise apartment building. Unfortunately, his perfect plan falls apart when he’s arrested for murder. That’s what happens when you get caught with blood on your hands and a dead body in the room. Now, Hubie must stay one step ahead of the law as he pursues a beautiful mystery woman in this fast-paced thriller that “hook[s] the reader from the get-go” (Albuquerque Journal). The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein: After Hubie appraises a collection of Anasazi pots for an eccentric, reclusive collector, his $2,500 payment disappears. He suspects the man ripped him off, but soon stumbles into a bigger crime when the collector is murdered. Determined not to end up in handcuffs, Hubie sets out to solve the mystery—and finds himself pulled deeper and deeper into the dead man’s shadowy, dangerous life.

A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "Audaciously well written...the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it." Publishers Weekly raved that "with near-universal appeal . . . Seay’s debut novel is a true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story." Set in three cities in three eras, The Mirror Thief calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado. The core story is set in Venice in the sixteenth century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination—was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?—the Venetian mirrors were state of the art technology, and subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. But for any of the development team to leave the island was a crime punishable by death. One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . . Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . . All three stories will weave together into a spell-binding tour-de-force that is impossible to put down—an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.

After stealing an Aboriginal mask from a museum, unemployed stoner John Lincoln realizes that the spirits of the vengeful dead are possessing his body and mind while he sleeps! What follows is an unpredictable tour around the American South as the Dream Thief accrues the memories and skills of various murder victims... and fights to stay awake, before he kills again! Bram Stoker Award winner Jai Nitz and Greg Smallwood, along with a who's who of modern comics talents providing covers and pinups, craft a stylish, fast-paced drama of supernatural revenge!

The pot thief is going back to school, but someone on campus is trying for a different kind of degree—murder in the first—in this “smartly funny series” (Anne Hillerman). Before making a somewhat notorious name for himself as a salvager of antiquated pottery and other desert artifacts, Hubie Schuze was an eager student at the University of New Mexico—right up until they booted him out. Now, he’s back at UNM as a pottery teacher. It should be a breeze, but campus life has changed dramatically in the past twenty-five years. From cell phones to trigger warnings to sensitivity workshops, Hubie has to get up to speed fast or risk losing control of his class. But his dismay at the state of modern academia takes a back seat when a young beauty working as a life model is murdered—and Hubie becomes a suspect. Taking the investigation into his own hands, he soon uncovers a wide palette of sketchy suspects that includes both the self-involved student body and the quarrelsome art school faculty. But what he doesn’t know is that the murderer has a new artistic project in the works: a headstone for the grave of Hubie Schuze . . . The Pot Thief Who Studied Edward Abbey is the 8th book in the Pot Thief Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.