The Funny and Clever Pot Thief Mysteries by Michael Orenduff

Hubie Schuze is a man who has made a reputation for himself combing the deserts of New Mexico unearthing valuable ceramic objects. He thinks of himself as a treasure hunter, the authorities are not so sure.

While Hubie’s work is definitely on the borderline of wrongdoing, when he’s offered $25,000 to steal a valuable vase from a museum, he seems about to jump firmly into the world of out-and-out criminality.

However, once he’s surveyed the security, Hubie decides not to go through with the burglary after all. When the pot is stolen a few weeks later, the police focus their investigation on a man who guards have noticed casing the joint – Schuze, of course.

There’s only one way for our hero to shake them off his trail—find the real thief.

Hubie decides to turn his thieving skills to a good cause, returning some stolen sacred pots to the pueblo in New Mexico from which they disappeared.

Most of Hubie’s working life is spent working underground, these pots are high above it—in the penthouse of a luxury apartment block.

Unfortunately, Hubie’s immaculately planned heist quickly lands him in hot water and he gets more than he bargains for when he discovers a dead body on the roof and becomes a murder suspect.

Hubie attempts to alleviate the boredom during a slow day in his Albuquerque antique shop by accepting a cash offer to inspect the collection of a reclusive collector.

The collector fails to pay, but when an irritated Hubie tries to recover the debt, he finds himself slap-bang in the middle of a murder investigation—and guess who the fingers are pointing at?

Hired to provide plates for a swanky new Austrian restaurant in Santa Fe, Hubie thinks he’s going to make some easy money. 

However, he soon discovers that, when it comes to ruthlessness and back-stabbing, the world of high-end restaurants makes stealing pots look like a kindergarten class.

As chefs are murdered and waiters croaked, our hero tries to uncover the criminal and secure his fee.

The genial and engaging Hubie finds himself in a classic mystery situation – snowed in at an isolated house with a bunch of eccentric characters, one of whom is a homicidal maniac.

He’s come here to a ranch in Taos to try and find a valuable pottery bowl that was given to celebrated English author DH Lawrence when he lived in the house.

It seems that once again, Schuze’s quest for a quick buck has come with trouble and bloodshed attached.

Hubie finds himself trapped in a cave after a mysterious stranger cuts the rope that lowered him into it and drives off in his truck. What’s more, he’s down there with the skeleton of a long-dead man.

After making his escape, our lovable rogue returns with his best friend Susannah, and together the pair endeavor to find the identity of the dead man.

As the title indicates, it’s a trail that will take the sleuthing duo back to the days of the Old West outlaws.

Hubie’s quest to find hidden pottery takes him to the one place in New Mexico he’s never been before—the top-secret missile range where the first atomic bomb was detonated.

As you might expect, no good comes of his adventure. Factor in the discovery of a lost Georgia O’Keefe masterpiece, a femme fatale, and what looks like mass forgery and you have the ingredients for another beguiling gag-peppered mystery.

Hubie returns to the college that kicked him out, the University of New Mexico, to take up the position of pottery teacher.

It’s a job for which he’s well qualified and which promises a working life that doesn’t involve ducking and diving between lawmen and criminals.

Such notions quickly go out the window when a life model is murdered and all the evidence points in one direction—the newly arrived ceramics expert.

DNA samples from a John Doe discovered in Albuquerque’s Old Town reveal that the dead man is related to Hubie, but who is he? 

Our favorite treasure-hunter determined to find out.

Along the way he’ll uncover some dark family secrets and—in a wittily post-modern twist—his relationship to the author of the series.

A 3D-printed pot developed by Hubie’s computer-whiz kid nephew becomes an object of fascination when the mild-mannered antique dealer puts it on display in his shop.

In fact, obsession might be a better word for it. Soon all sorts of odd characters are trying desperately to get their hands on the new item.

When the attempts turn bloody, Hubie sets out to discover what makes the pot so special and who is willing to kill to get it.