A Barnes & Noble reader gave me a one-star review because he/she felt I ripped off my first book Calendar Moonstone's "A Brilliant Plan" from the works of an author called Marne Davis Kellogg. I honestly had never heard of her and looked her up and read up on one of her story snippets published on her author-webpage.

And indeed, the first installment of Mrs. Kellog's series is called "Brilliant" and the heroine is a part-time jewelry burglar with a regular job in the art world (auctioneer?).

Yes, so small the literary world is. But I can assure you guys, it is definitely not a rip-off! "The Brilliant Plan" Calendar Moonstone setup had evolved from three major influences:

The Hitchcock movie "To Catch A Thief" - I loved watching this movie as a child, hot summer evenings and a great movie on the tube...
Sydney Sheldon's "Tomorrow Never Comes" - Banker turned jewelry thief, hunted by insurance agent (wait! another rip-off) in a sort of Monte Christo revenge story (wait! Sheldon ripped-off Dumas!)
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels - this is probably the weakest link and the weakest developed but from a speed, humor and tone this is what I aspire with this series. Well, maybe one gear longer on screwball situations and one gear faster on story-twists.