To Catch a Thief

Publishing History

Cosmopolitan. Vol. 131, no. 6 (Dec. 1951)
New York: Random House, 1952
New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1953 (Dell 658)
London: Michael Joseph, 1953
Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1955 (Penguin 1053)
Connecticut: Williamson Book Co., [after 1955]
London: White Lion Publishers Ltd., 1972; ISBN: 0856178039
London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1988 (Mastercrime); ISBN: 0460125575
Eugene, Or.: Bruin Books, 2010 (Bruin Crimeworks); ISBN: 978-0982633939
Audible, Inc., 2013 [audiobook]
New York: Diversion Books, 2015 [e-book]; ISBN: 978-1626816008
Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, 2025 (Library of Congress Crime Classics); ISBN: 978-1464225345

Condensed versions

In Reader’s Digest Condensed Books, Winter 1952 Selections. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader’s Digest Association, 1952, p. 397-503
In Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. London, Sydney and Cape Town: Reader’s Digest Association, [1956?], p. 409-503
In Anthology of Mystery and Suspense (Reader’s Digest Book Club). Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader’s Digest Association, 1959, p. 224-315
In The Reader’s Digest Anthology of Mystery and Suspense London, Sydney, Cape Town: Reader’s Digest Association, 1961, p. [300]-388
In The Golden Age of Film: Four Novels That Captivated Hollywood. Ultimo, N.S.W.: Reader’s Digest Australia, 2009, p. [7]-105; ISBN: 978-1921569197

Setting

Côte d’Azur

Summary

David Dodge’s eighth novel, To Catch a Thief, represents a distinct departure in style and subject matter from his previous works of fiction. John Robie, aka Le Chat, is a retired American jewel thief living quietly in a luxurious villa, Villa des Bijoux, on the Côte d’Azur. His peace and quiet is disrupted when a string of copycat burglaries lead the flics to suspect that Le Chat has returned to his old habits. In addition, Robie’s freedom is threatened by an unfinished jail term of 20 years, for which he has only unofficial amnesty. Convinced that the authorities would never believe him innocent, Robie decides to take matters into his own hands.

The novel was extremely successful. As Dodge wrote in The Rich Man’s Guide to the Riviera, “… Le Chat caught on. A number of other people saw in the yarn potentialities for revision, reshaping and improvement. It was condensed, boiled down, digested, redigested, reprinted, book-clubbed, synopsized, subjected to scenario treatment and ultimately blown up into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. All that survived in the end were the title, the names of some of the characters and the copyright, which was mine.” [The copyright later became Kendal’s, but that is another story…]