The Good Thief's Guide to Paris: A Mystery

by Chris Ewan

Overview

Charlie Howard—globe-trotting mystery writer and the most disarming burglar since Cary Grant in It Takes a Thief—is flush with the success of his Paris book reading and a few glasses of wine when he agrees to show a novice how to break into an apartment. The next day, Charlie is hired to steal a painting—from the same address. Coincidence? Perhaps, but then why does a dead body turn up in his living room? And what is he going to do when his charming literary agent, Victoria (who is trusting enough to assume he looks like his author photo), decides they should finally meet face to face?

Nobody ever said a life of suspense was easy, but in Chris Ewan's The Good Thief's Guide to Paris, Charlie, the most disarmingly charming burglar since Cary Grant, soon finds things are getting way out of control.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312578053
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Series:	Good Thief's Guide Series , #2
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.52(w) x 8.24(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

CHRIS EWAN is a lawyer on the Isle of Man. His first novel, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, was hailed as one of the best "books for grownups" by the editors of Publishers Weekly and AARP The Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

Fast and funny, Ewan's second offering in the Good Thief series is even better than the first.” —Booklist (Starred Review)

“Charlie Howard ... once again makes a funny, fast-talking narrator in Ewan's delightful second mystery.” —Publishers Weekly

“A feast for the amoral.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Wonderful descriptions of locale, engaging and wacky characters, and an entertaining plot that will leave readers eager for the next book. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

Charlie Howard, a crime writer who's also an international burglar, once again makes a funny, fast-talking narrator in Ewan's delightful second mystery (after 2007's The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam). Tipsy after a Parisian book signing, Charlie agrees to show a new acquaintance the basics of the trade by breaking into the man's own apartment. Trouble ensues when the apartment actually belongs to someone else. Charlie's fence commissions him the next day to break into the same apartment to steal an apparently worthless painting, and the apartment's real owner turns up dead in Charlie's apartment. Hiding in a Montmartre hotel, Charlie tries to save his skin while also placating his attractive agent, Victoria, who's arrived unannounced only to discover that the client she's grown so close to by phone looks nothing like the author photo he provided. That Charlie pens a memoir titled The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam adds a nice postmodern touch to a classic caper. (Nov.)

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Publishers Weekly

Mystery writer and sometime professional thief Charlie Howard (introduced in Ewan's debut, A Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam) foolishly agrees to show one of his fans how to break into an apartment after a book signing event in Paris-simple, no problem. The next day, his fence calls and orders the theft of a painting from the very same address. Charlie is perplexed but not worried, and the job goes well. However, he returns home to find a dead body in his flat, which presents a real problem. Calling the police would reveal the hot painting as well as the corpse. Moreover, his prickly agent is due to arrive at any moment, and they've never met face to face. His fence is now curiously unavailable to receive the painting, and Charlie thinks he's being tailed by a suspicious guy in a Jaguar. Once again, Charlie finds himself in a convoluted set of circumstances worthy of one of his own book plots. Filled with mistaken identities, hot Picassos, mysterious hit men, and a tricky bit of art swapping at the Pompidou Center, this novel features wonderful descriptions of locale, engaging and wacky characters, and an entertaining plot that will leave readers eager for the next book. Highly recommended for all mystery collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ7/08.]
—Susan Clifford Braun

Library Journal

A tutorial in larceny leads to a study in homicide. The guy seems harmless enough. Granted, what he wants borders on the bizarre, but then Charlie Howard (The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, 2007), part-time mystery writer, part-time burglar, full-time scalawag, is plenty bizarre in his own right. They're both part of the scene at Paris Lights, the best known bookstore in France, when the young man with the dazzling smile asks Charlie to make him his protege. He wants Charlie to teach him the fine art of breaking and entering. The target, it turns out, is his very own apartment. Charlie signs on and, when one thing leads to another, finds himself enmeshed in a scheme to filch Picasso's The Guitar Player, currently on display in a carefully guarded Parisian gallery. Or perhaps not quite as carefully as its guardians think. At any rate, Charlie, along with several among the band of entrepreneurial thieves, sees it as vulnerable, and so the game's afoot. Before it's finally over, The Guitar Player has changed locations, the protege has changed sides, and Charlie has changed hair color to elude a gendarmerie eager to have him account for a certain inconvenient dead body. A feast for the amoral, but how many readers will take to a protagonist who unhesitatingly frames a friend in order to save his own hide?

Kirkus Reviews