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.
Charlie Howard travels the globe writing suspense novels
for a living, about an intrepid burglar named Faulks. To
supplement his income---and to keep his hand in---Charlie
also has a small side business: stealing for a very
discreet clientele on commission.
When a mysterious American offers to pay Charlie 20,000
euros if he steals two small monkey figurines to match the
one he already has, Charlie is suspicious; he doesn’t know
how the American found him, and the job seems too good to
be true. And, of course, it is. Although the burglary goes
off without a hitch, when he goes to deliver the monkeys he
finds that the American has been beaten to near-death, and
that the third figurine is missing.
Back in London, his long-suffering literary agent, Victoria
(who is naive enough to believe he actually looks like his
jacket photo), tries to talk him through the plot problems
in both his latest manuscript and his real life---but
Charlie soon finds himself caught up in a caper reminiscent
of a Cary Grant movie, involving safe-deposit boxes,
menacing characters, and, of course, a beautiful damsel in
distress.
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