Under the Streets of Nice

The Bank Heist of the Century

By: Ken Follett, René L. Maurice

Narrated by: Roddy McDowall

One hot Monday morning in 1976, Albert Spaggiari had engineered the European crime of the century.

A bank president in Nice, France found his vault welded shut—from the inside—with a note left behind that read, "Without guns, without violence, without hate." Spaggiari and his gang of 20 men had dug a 25-foot tunnel from the city's sewer system into the bank, where they spent a weekend cooking meals, drinking wine, and clearing millions of dollars in gold, jewelry, gems, and cash. Here is the breathtakingly compelling story of Spaggiari, his “sewer gang,” and the most daring, outrageous theft of the 20th century.

©2008 Ken Follett (P)2008 Phoenix Books, Inc.

Tremendous storytelling

This is an excellent book. Draws you right in and keeps you there. My only regret is that it's too short! The fact that it's all true makes it all the more fascinating, hearing about how they pulled this off. Excellent narration as well. The recording quality (it's only a 2) is a slight drawback, but don't let this dissuade you. Put on those noise-cancelling headphones and prepare to be transported!

The Only Mediocre Ken Follett Book I’ve Found

Being a big Ken Follett fan, I had high hopes as I began this book. I was quite disappointed. The author (and the reader) leaned over backwards trying to give the book a French flavor; at times, this distracted from the content. The story seemed ordinary, rather than significant. Had it been really bad, I would have given up in the middle, but I didn’t.

Under The Streets of Nice

Well written non-fiction... fast paced enough to read as fiction. Typical of Follett's well crafted story telling even though he is a partner author.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

I bought this book without knowing anything about it first. I love Ken Follett and I love Nice, so I figure it was win-win.

As the story moved along, I was impressed with Follett’s imagination and ability to weave complex tales and adventures… then toward the end I realized it was a true-crime story! HA HA HA! Just goes to show the old maxim is true: “You can’t make this stuff up!”

I didn’t enjoy the narration. French is my mother tongue and there were a few French sentences in the book. I find that very few English narrators are able to pronounce French words properly! It’s a pet peeve for me. This one was particularly awful – not just little things like pronouncing “rue” as “roo” but so badly accented overall that I could not understand a word!

Very good

I enjoy this. I don’t think we should pay that much money for. 4 hour audiobook. This should have been free. Not worth the credit but it was good.