Boost — Steve Brewer

Sam Hill steals cars. Not just any cars, but collectible cars, rare works of automotive artistry. Sam's a specialist, and he's made a good life for himself in Albuquerque.
Things change one night after he steals a primo 1965 Thunderbird from a lawyer's house. In the trunk, Sam finds a corpse, a police informant with a bullet hole between his eyes. And he learns that cops are swarming the garage where he'd planned to deliver the T-Bird.
Using his own resourcefulness as well as the assistance of his two pals, apprentice thief Billy Suggs and an inscrutable giant named Way-Way Henderson, Sam learns who's behind the body in the trunk: Phil Ortiz, a notorious drug dealer and car collector.
Sam, it seems, boosted Ortiz's favorite car -- a green low-rider painted with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- and Ortiz is determined to get even. And to get that car back.
The stakes get higher with each round of one-upmanship. Finally, it's clear that Ortiz won't quit until he has the last laugh and Sam Hill is dead.