Mystery writers do a lot of research about the crimes they feature in their books. But writer Charlie Howard has gone a step further. In addition to writing books featuring a burglar as the main character, Charlie himself is an accomplished thief. While spending some time in Amsterdam, finishing up his latest book, Charlie is suspicious when an American contacts him by e-mail for a job. Still, he decides to meet with the man, who gives his name only as "Michael."

Michael has a small monkey figurine, one of the familiar trio that represents "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." He wants Charlie to steal the other two from separate locations. He even gives Charlie details about the locations and has a plan to distract the potential victims, to make sure Charlie has enough time to get in and out.

At first, Charlie says no, then his curiosity gets the best of him. He ends up taking the job, which of course does not go nearly as smoothly as planned, although he ends up with both monkeys. The real snag occurs when Charlie goes to deliver the two monkeys and finds that Michael has been nearly beaten to death. Then a police inspector shows up at Charlie's door with some pointed questions about his association with the American. And it turns out that someone else wants to have a full set of the monkey figurines and is willing to go a lot further than simple burglary to get them. Now Charlie finds himself trying to evade the police and violent thugs while trying to figure out if he can trust the beautiful, mysterious Marieke -- a friend of Michael's who seems to want to help him. Meanwhile, there's that deadline looming for his new book...

Charlie is one of those "bad boys" who lives by his own peculiar code of honor, and despite some of his questionable activities, readers will root for him. His resourcefulness and sense of humor, along with what is almost an addiction to stealing, combine to make a charming anti-hero. I enjoyed the descriptions of Amsterdam, an exotic yet gritty setting, and the twisty plot kept me guessing. There are also some amusing, flirtatious phone exchanges between Charlie and his literary agent, Victoria. I'm hoping this is only the first in a whole series of Good Thief's Guides.