Like all the best fabled morality tales this one begins in a walk-in wardrobe. The wardrobe belongs to Paris Hilton and the interlopers into that strange fantasy land are a pair of bored high school dropouts who have wandered here in search of adventure (and free designer stuff).

THE BLING RING, by Nancy Jo Sales. Harper, 2013, 266 pp., $15.99 (paperback)

Nick Prugo, 18, and Rachel Lee, 17, are a Bonnie and Clyde for the '00s, kind of. In October 2008 in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas, they were spending their days watching reality TV shows, browsing gossip websites and flicking through fashion magazines, until one evening they decided they would try that life on for size themselves.