Doors Open is a 2008 novel by crime writer Ian Rankin. It was his first stand-alone thriller in over 10 years. The story was originally published as a serial in The New York Times Magazine.
Mike Mackenzie is a software entrepreneur who has sold his company for a substantial amount of money, but is now bored and looking for a new thrill. His new-found wealth has funded a genuine interest in art so when his friend Professor Robert Gissing presents him with a plan for the perfect crime. With a vast collection but limited wall space, the National Gallery has many more valuable works of art in storage than it could ever display.
The plan is to stage a heist at the Granton storage depot on “Doors Open Day” during which a selected group of paintings will be “stolen”. The gang will then give the appearance of having panicked and fled without the works of art, but will have switched the real paintings with high quality forgeries good enough to convince anyone investigating the matter that no theft has been committed.
Intrigued, Mike willingly helps set that plan in motion. As they begin to it out, it becomes clear that they need some “professional assistance” and a chance encounter with Chib Calloway, a local gangster who Mike went to school with, fulfils that need.
