I just got through reading “The Pot Thief who Studied Einstein” by J. Michael Orenduff. It is a murder mystery set in Albuquerque, New Mexico featuring Herbert Schuze who owns a shop in Old Town where he sells  Anasazi pots. He also makes copies of such pots. Schuze is a treasure hunter who got in trouble as a younger man for digging up pots on public lands and expelled from the University of New Mexico. He still digs, he just doesn’t talk about it that much.

This Pot Thief book, like the others, moves pretty quickly. Schuze is asked to make copies of three pots by a mysterious stranger. Later Schuze is asked to appraise a large collection of pots and finds that the same copies are in the collection. This of course makes him start questioning what is going on. Then somebody connected to all this turns up dead, and Schuze is the leading suspect.

This book won an “Eppie” at the “Left Coast Crime Convention” earlier this year, a national award for the “Best Humorous Mystery Novel.” The book is very entertaining, Schuze has an ironic of life and a wide variety of friends and acquaintances, from Susannah Inchaustigui, his margarita drinking companion, to Detective Whit Fletcher who also has flexible ethics.

If you love New Mexico you’ll love this book. Schuze cooks authentic New Mexican dishes (Tex/Mex will never seem the same after you have had New Mexican cuisine)  and his characters ring true.

This is one of four “Pot Thief” books. I have read the other three: “The Pot Thief who Studied Pythagoras“, “The Pot Thief who Studied Ptolemy“, and “The Pot Thief who Studied Escoffier.” According to the Pot Thief Series web site, Orenduff is working on “The Pot Thief who Studied D.H. Lawrence.”

I give “The Pot Thief who Studied Einstein” four stars out of five. It can hold its own against any of the best selling murder mystery novels I’ve read.