Books 2019 - A Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan

[byslantedlight]

Mount TBR so far = 6/24
Lj Book Bingo Masterpost

The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan
Charlie Howard travels the globe writing suspense novels for a living. To supplement his income - and keep his hand in - Charlie has a small side business: stealing for a very discreet clientele on commission.
When a mysterious American offers Charlie 20,000 euros to steal two small monkey figurines to match the one he already has, Charlie is suspicious; the job seems too good to be true, and of course, it is. He soon finds the American beaten nearly to death, and the third figurine has vanished.
Back in London, his literary agent Victoria (who is savvy naive enough to believe he actually looks like his jacket photo), tries to talk him through the plot problems in both his manuscript and in his real life - but Charlie soon finds himself caught in a caper reminiscent of a Cary Grant movie, involving safe-deposit boxes, menacing characters, and a beautiful damsel in distress.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did in the end. I raced through it in a couple of days, it's a very smooth read. I bought this on the basis of having heard Chris Ewan talking at a library event a couple of years ago, and I went to that because he'd written a book set in the Isle of Man (Dark Tides, based around Hop-Tu-Naa (Manx halloween, kind of)). He talked about investigating lock picks, and how to use a credit card to unlock a door, and various interesting things - and so I thought I'd give the first book in his series a go.

And it's good! Charlie was a bit annoying, and slightly stereotypical in some ways, but actually he was also subject to ordinary things happening to him along the way of his extraordinary life, and so it worked. He seemed pretty real, the other characters mostly seemed real (of course the Dutch girl was amazingly sexy, cos this was written by a bloke, but hey-ho. I can't say much more, cos it's a murder mystery etc., so spoilers, but I'd recommend it!

And yeay - because not only is the title six words long for ljbookbingo, but it's been on my shelf for at least a year, so it's another one for Mount To-Be-Read too! *g* And oooh, look - nearly two full rows! *vbg*

It just squeezes into Mount TBR (loaned to me by a friend when I got back from Australia - but I figure if a loan's been on my shelves for more than a month waiting to be read, then it counts as TBR - and this has been here since last year. *g* And it's also

Booklist 2019
1. Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (bookgroup)
2. You take the Hippy, I'll take Goldilocks by Gil Hale (fanfic re-read)
3. In a Land of Shadows by Gil Hale (fanfic re-read)
4. The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham (MountTBR, LjBookBingo)
5. A Walk on the Beach by E.T. (fanfic re-read)
6. Chasing the Light by Jesse Blackadder (Mount TBR, LjBookBingo)
7. November by Sebastian (fanfic re-read)
8. Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford (Mount TBR, LjBookBingo)
9. The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore (Bookgroup, LjBookBingo)
10. Cold Water Morning by Fictonwriter (fanfic)
11. All or Nothing by Kate MacLean (fanfic re-read)
12. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (LjBookBingo, Mount TBR)
13. Chameleon's Dish by Kitty Fisher (fanfic re-read)
14. Less by Andrew Sean Greer (LjBookBingo, Mount TBR)
15. Gravity's Angel (by Jenny Parkinson?) (fanfic re-read)
16. Band Sinister by K.J. Charles (LjBookBingo, re-read on paper)
17. Whisper of a Kill by Lois Welling (fanfic re-read)
18. Redemption by Kate Maclean (fanfic re-read)
19. What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera (new book, LjBookBingo)
20. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (new book)
21. The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan (Mount TBR, LjBookBingo)
22. The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve (Mount TBR)

Comments

[stellar_raven]

Sounds pretty good, glad you liked it!

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

The thief's Guide sounds interesting to me, I shall have to check it out. I am just finishing Crisis by Felix Francis today. This has to be one of his best and very like what his father Dick would have written, only set now with mobiles, DNA evidence, and CCTV.