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'''''Stealing Lillian''''' is a comedy/[[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] novel by [[Tony Kenrick]], which was optioned to become a film.
''Stealing Lillian'' was included in the [[Tozai Mystery Best 100]] list of 1985.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tozai Top 100 Western and Eastern Crime Novels |url= https://www.scribd.com/document/340285788/Tozai-Top-100-Western-and-Eastern-Crime-Novels |access-date=May
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A [[Confidence trick|con artist]], Bunny Calder, is working two jobs in [[New York City]], one of them a [[travel agency]]. He is a good-hearted man but enjoys the thrills and risks of [[Scam|scamming]]. He works both jobs at the same time, dashing from one office to the other and back all day, and constantly coming up with lies to his employers about coffee breaks and the like. He uses the second job to obtain a copy of the key to the apartments of those to whom he has sold vacation tickets. Knowing how long they will be out of town, he then advertises in [[Midwestern United States|Midwestern]] newspapers to find well-behaved couples to rent the place, from him, during that week or two. When lovely Ella Brown, and [[Interior decoration|interior decorator]], buys a ticket from him, he promptly lets her apartment to two couples who get drunk and destroy the place.
Daniel Lasky of [[U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services]] is hunting a gang of terrorists known to have entered New York, and he wants someone bold and and quick-thinking to stage a kidnapping, which he knows that these terrorists will attempt. He proposes that instead of making a federal case against Bunny, the Department will enlist him and Ella to stage the kidnapping. They will play multimillionaires Don Ray and [Mrs.] Bergstrom, with Lillian Phelan, an orphan, as their daughter Sherryl Anne. Lillian turns out to be a great con artist, too, tough and potty-mouthed, "like any nine-year-old Marine," as Bunny tells Hartley, the bodyguard acting as their chef.
At a press conference in a borrowed mansion, the "Bergstroms" announce that they are entering society and enumerate their riches, estate, and expensive car collection. Lasky's plan is to attract kidnappers, and that's who they get. But before they get the terrorists, they get Syd and Earl, who are also small-time scammers.
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