"The story of an obsessive-compulsive housebreaker whose every waking moment is jam-packed with finicky clockwork ritual--the kind of intense micro-planning that might have made even Napoleon back off...Matthew Dicks has created an unforgettable character that will have you torn between wanting to throttle him--or adopt him."  --Alan Bradley, author of the New York Times bestselling Flavia de Luce novels A career criminal with OCD tendencies and a savant-like genius for bringing order to his crime scenes, Martin considers himself one of the best. After all, he’s been able to steal from the same people for years on end—virtually undetected. Of course, this could also be because of his unique business model—taking only items that will go unnoticed by the homeowner. After all, who would notice a missing roll of toilet paper here, a half-used bottle of maple syrup there, or even a rarely used piece of china buried deep within a dusty cabinet?   Even though he's never met these homeowners, spending hours in their houses, looking through their photo albums and reading their journals, he feels like he knows them. So Martin decides to meddle more in their lives—playing the part of a rather odd guardian angel—even though it means breaking many of his neurotic rules.   In this hilarious, suspenseful and often profound novel about a man used to planning every second of his life, Martin comes to realize that life is much better lived on the edge (at least some of the time). Amazon Exclusive: Alan Bradley Reviews Something Missing Alan Bradley is the author of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie , the first mystery in the Flavia de Luce series, and one of Amazon's Best of the Month picks. The next book in the series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag , will be published in 2010. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of Something Missing : I once knew a man who thought in precisely the same way that Martin Railsback does. Even the drabbest of tasks, such as going for groceries, or putting out the trash, had to be planned with the utmost strategy and cunning. I found out later that my friend was a retired safecracker. Martin Railsback, Jr., if you haven’t already heard, is the protagonist of Matthew Dick’s first novel, Something Missing : the story of an obsessive-compulsive housebreaker whose every waking moment is jam-packed with finicky clockwork ritual--the kind of intense micro-planning that might have made even Napoleon back off. Martin’s only problem is that, after years of undetected crime, he’s recently begun to think of himself as a sort of guardian angel who watches over his victims, or “clients,” as he prefers to call them. Conscience rears its ugly head. Up until now, Martin has always played life as if it were a game of chess: by thinking a dozen moves ahead of everyone else, he will always come out ahead of the game. And so he does, until the day he accidentally knocks Sophie Pearl’s electric toothbrush into the toilet bowl while stealing a single one (don’t ask!) of her diamond earrings. Thus begins a series of events that play out like a cross between Raymond Chandler and a Keystone Cops two-reeler. Like Jeff Lindsay, whose Dexter series has so brilliantly explored the underside of the underside, Matthew Dicks has created an unforgettable character that will have you torn between wanting to throttle him--or adopt him. --Alan Bradley (Photo © Jeff Bassett) "Who wants to catch a thief when he's as endearing as Martin Railsback, the oddball hero of Matthew Dicks's first novel, SOMETHING MISSING? Martin is, after all, prone to rob people of items they'll never miss (a bar of soap, a few sticks of butter, the odd diamond) as a way of getting to know them. Despite his obsessive-compulsive work ethic, Martin manages to get himself in trouble over a toothbrush--but not before we've decided to let him in next time he calls." -- New York Times Book Review "This is a splendid novel, written with loving attention to character and detail; Martin is so vividly realized that he threatens to step off the page and into the reader’s own living room. A loopier Bernie Rhodenbarr? A less lethal Dexter? Martin falls somewhere in between, but with a little word of mouth and some shrewd promotion, he could be the next big thing." -- Booklist , starred review "Dicks has dreamed up an unusual premise and twisted it so that the reader is rootting for 'the bad guy.'...Read Something Missing this summer and join the fun as Martin's life and crimes become more than he ever imagine." -- The Free Lance-Star " [T]he obsessive-compulsive Martin Railsback is a strange but lovable anti-hero." - -Boston Globe "Dicks combines the neurotic atmosphere of a Woody Allen film wiht the light touch of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr novels (The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart, 1995, etc) in a unique debut. The fantastically bizarre leading man, obsessive-compulsive Marin Railsback, specializ