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50th out of 65 books
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17 voters
The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam (Good Thief's Guide #1)
by
Chris Ewan
“An impressive, very funny debut novel . . . featuring Charlie Howard, who is the very model of a modern master criminal.” —The Raleigh News & Observer
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 mysteri
...moreKindle Edition
Published
(first published 2007)
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Feb 18, 2013
astried
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2013,
detective-mistery-etc
If Chris Ewan was an architect, his philosophy wouldn't be "less is more", Corbusier is he not. His buildings would probably be of Richard Roger's intricate steel structures. His detective story sure is. Well, probably not that complicated but I can see how he revels in plots & details, there's a conclusion he made involving a break-in using mallet & drill, there's a gun being hidden somewhere that turned up again several chapter later, there's a manuscript with a plot hole involving a b...more
Charlie Howard writes books about thieves and suspense. He's also a thief himself. Approached by a man who wants him to steal three monkey figurines of little apparent value, but the theft must occur in a certain time frame. Charlie decides, against his better judgment (the money's really good,) to take on the challenge. He recovers two of them only to discover he had competition, and that the American who hired him has been severely beaten and left for dead. Charlie is soon a suspect in the mur...more
A ripping good yarn. Who would have thought to create a character that is a thief and a successful crime writer - talk about creating your own stories! This audio book kept me company on the miserable journey from Glasgow to Birmingham today (May 10th) and what a lot of rain there was. A lot of rain in our hero (?) Charlie Howards life as well as he steals two monkey figures for an American who dies in suspicious circumstances before Charlie can hand them over and receive his substantial pay. So...more
Auf Chris Ewans Krimi-Reihe um den Meisterdieb und Krimi-Autor Charlie Howard wurde ich durch den dritten Band der Reihe, „Vendetta in Las Vegas“, aufmerksam. Nachdem ich den dritten Band zu Erst gelesen habe, habe ich nun auch nacheinander den ersten und zweiten Band gelesen. Da es mir zu beiden Büchern nicht richtig gelingt eine Rezension zu schreiben, ohne das Gefühl zu haben, zwei Mal die gleiche Rezension zu schreiben, möchte ich an dieser Stelle die beiden Bücher bzw. die Reihe einfach nur...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I bought this because I thought it would be quick, light plane reading. And it was. It's easy to read, quick and doesn't really require a lot of brain power. I did have to stop and start with the book a lot though, mainly because the main character annoyed me a bit. He tried too hard.
The main character- Charlie- is a crime-fiction author, who also happens to moonlight as a thief. He's somehow embroiled in this elaborate, and invariably messy, burglary where everything goes wrong. The thing about...more
The main character- Charlie- is a crime-fiction author, who also happens to moonlight as a thief. He's somehow embroiled in this elaborate, and invariably messy, burglary where everything goes wrong. The thing about...more
Sometimes life really does imitate art. That's certainly the case for Charlie Howard, who has written a series of suspense novels about an intrepid thief named Faulks. As it turns out, Charlie also does a bit of burgling on the side. Apparently, this is not a very well-kept secret. Charlie is currently working in Amsterdam and is approached by an American who is willing to pay him a lot of money to steal two monkey figurines, which are a part of a "Hear/See/Speak No Evil" set, and for which he h...more
First Sentence: “I want you to steal something for me.”
Charlie Howard is a suspense writer. He is also a thief. Charlie is approached by an American who offers him 20,000 euros to steal to monkey figurines from two different men on the same night. Charlie declines but, liking a challenge, decides to go ahead. He finds the first monkey but is interrupted by another, less subtle burglar, while looking for the second. When he returns to the American, he finds him beaten and near death. Charlie is a...more
Charlie Howard is a suspense writer. He is also a thief. Charlie is approached by an American who offers him 20,000 euros to steal to monkey figurines from two different men on the same night. Charlie declines but, liking a challenge, decides to go ahead. He finds the first monkey but is interrupted by another, less subtle burglar, while looking for the second. When he returns to the American, he finds him beaten and near death. Charlie is a...more
Jun 11, 2009
Linda
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
mystery_book_club
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I found this book to be enjoyable and interesting. Having the main character be a writer who writes a series about a thief and is himself a thief added an interesting layer. Makes me wish that the author was also a thief so we could continue that string :)
One thing was odd to me - the use of the word 'stood' instead of 'standing' or whatever. It was a little jarring each time it appeared. Is this a British thing that I am just not used to?
I liked what one reviewer said: Rob Kitchin - "The Good T...more
One thing was odd to me - the use of the word 'stood' instead of 'standing' or whatever. It was a little jarring each time it appeared. Is this a British thing that I am just not used to?
I liked what one reviewer said: Rob Kitchin - "The Good T...more
Charlie Howard is an English writer living temporarily in Amsterdam where he is struggling to finish a novel of the 'gentleman thief' variety - his agent keeps finding flaws in the plot. On the technical aspects of thieving however he writes authoritatively because he is also a thief by profession, stealing on commission. Against his better judgement, Charlie takes a job from a mysterious American. Having completed the job, he finds the American murdered. Charlie then sets out to solve the murde...more
Whenever I travel, I try to read a book before hand that has something to do with that locale. This summer I traveled to the Netherlands and picked 2 books to read - Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (great story but has almost nothing to do with Amsterdam) and The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam. This is the first of Chris Ewan's 'Good Thief' series which revolve around a mystery author, Charlie Howard, who happens to supplement his income with a bit of burglary on the side. Charlie is no ordinary burgla...more
This book is a reader's choice book at my library and I loved it. It was well written with a lot of unexpected plot twists. It was very fast paced and left a cliff hanger at the end of each chapter so it was hard to put down. The climax was very complex with a lot of loose ends but the author tied it all up nicely. There is one adult scene though, which I guess unfortunately is standard for any modern book anymore. But the tight prose was gripping.
This is the first book in a series of "Good Thief's Guide to (insert foreign, interesting location)." I noticed the 4th book in the series (Venice) in the library while on my current "read anything you can find set in Venice" binge. As I am an obsessive, I have to read the other books first, in order, before I can get to Venice. However, as I have also previously been to Amsterdam, I was interested in the first entry to the series.
Chris Ewan's hero is Charlie Howard, an author of mysteries and s...more
Chris Ewan's hero is Charlie Howard, an author of mysteries and s...more
Good, clean fun. I might even follow this self-absorbed hack writer (speaking of the protagonist, not his creator, although...) to Paris for another silly caper. What I needed to get through a stressful couple of days.
A couple of months ago I attended a day-long writing conference. It was a series of workshops featuring a multitude of themes; most sessions featured writing prompts that we responded to and then read our writing aloud.
There was this thing I noticed from fellow participants who w...more
A couple of months ago I attended a day-long writing conference. It was a series of workshops featuring a multitude of themes; most sessions featured writing prompts that we responded to and then read our writing aloud.
There was this thing I noticed from fellow participants who w...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam is all about the plot. It’s a kind of screwball crime caper with thefts, double crosses, mistaken identities, confidence tricks, shifting alliances and the obligatory femme fatale. In particular, I thought the ‘all the characters in a room’ denouncement was very nicely delivered. Howard being a writer allows for a plot within a plot, and also to act as a kind of commentator on the case through his telephone discussions with his agent. The book is written in a...more
I had high expectations for this book about a thief who travels the world writing mediocre suspense novels, but found it lacking that something that makes a good read out of even a light novel. I wanted to feel Amsterdam's character through the book but the story could have been staged anywhere and the street names/descriptions changed accordingly. The story had possibilities: a mysterious American offers Charlie Howard, our novel-writing thief, a tidy sum to steak two small monkey figurines. Ch...more
May 11, 2009
Stven
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Stven by:
library
This is not an especially good book, but it does have some native charm to carry the reader along. The basic hook for the series, that our first-person narrator is a professional thief and a professional writer at the same time, is cute enough, and there's a fine cascade of events most of the way through the story. But there's a sense of the ramshackle about the structure which is not convincingly rescued by the long attempt to nail a really strong roof on top at the end.
There is also a distress...more
There is also a distress...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Mystery set in Amsterdam. The main character Charlie is a mystery writer who writes books about a thief, he himself is also a selective thief, very picky about what jobs he takes. He reluctantly accepts a job from an American to steal a couple of small monkey figurines, with no apparent value. When the American is murdered Charlie is thrown in the midst of a mystery he must solve. Pretty good, interesting setup, only one thing I didn't like was that at the end as Charlie is piecing the final clu...more
I dont think that this is one that I would have picked off the shelves myself but it is one that my wife enjoyed and thought that I would too.
It was an unusual premise for a book( see flyleaf precis) but the story moved long well a with some real page turning sections. There was a good plot with more twists and turns than you would expect and I doubt that you would fathom the solution before it is revealed.
My only reserve on this was that the solving of one of the main points seems to have relie...more
It was an unusual premise for a book( see flyleaf precis) but the story moved long well a with some real page turning sections. There was a good plot with more twists and turns than you would expect and I doubt that you would fathom the solution before it is revealed.
My only reserve on this was that the solving of one of the main points seems to have relie...more
I enjoyed reading it. The character of Charlie was likeable yet enigmatic. The book is set in Amsterdam, and some of the little details (like ordering a koffie verkeerd, stealing a bike, mentioning the Dynamo lamp, and leveling the head off the beer) were just perfect snapshots of the city and the Dutch culture. As a professional translator and editor, my only problem with it is that some reader before me had corrected all the grammatical errors (and there were a lot of them). The grammar errors...more
Chris Ewan won an award for this and it was well deserved. Charlie Howard writes caper mystery/thrillers but is also a thief. He is hired by Michael to steal some apparently worthless plaster of paris monkeys but Michael is killed before Charlie can give him them. And then the fun begins - lots of twists and turns, red herrings, false identities, and thrills and spills before Charlie solves the mystery. Very fast paced, and a fun read. I don't know if Chris Ewan has written any more books since...more
This book is narrated from the first-person perspective of Charlie Howard – a crime writer and burglar. He is an English man – a fellow Bristolian in fact – living, and working, in Amsterdam. The book is well-written, funny, with a good ending. There are a few plot twists, but because of the humour I didn’t spend too much time trying to work out who did what – I simply went a long for the ride and let Charlie Howard reveal all in his own good time. By the end a part of me fancied buying a black...more
I started reading this book for the mere fact that it has "Amsterdam" in the title- I studied abroad in The Netherlands and wanted to revisit the infamous capital in book form. Sure enough, many of Chris Ewan's descriptions (from canal viewing to bicycle stealing) brought back plenty of wonderful and crazy memories.
But nostalgia aside, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam is a quick, entertaining read. It's intended to be humorous, though I'm assuming the humor is as British as the main character...more
But nostalgia aside, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam is a quick, entertaining read. It's intended to be humorous, though I'm assuming the humor is as British as the main character...more
This is probably somewhere between 2 and 3 stars, but I'll give it three because I believe this is Chris Ewan's first book and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. This first book in the series is a decent mystery novel, but there were times when the writing was just a tad bit trite. That said, if I see the second book in the series in my local library, I'd be willing to give it a go. One good thing about this book is that it's a murder mystery but without all the crazy, gratuitous sex a...more
Ewan's first of a series starts well with plenty of Amsterdam atmosphere. Our investigator is Charlie Howard, most times a mystery writer and some times a thief. Ewan hits us with this from the first sentence: "I want you to steal something for me."
The book could be titled, "The Three Monkeys." You know the trio: Hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil. That is what Charlie is asked to steal. Things get complicated with a strange blonde, a decade old diamond caper and series of burglaries that...more
The book could be titled, "The Three Monkeys." You know the trio: Hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil. That is what Charlie is asked to steal. Things get complicated with a strange blonde, a decade old diamond caper and series of burglaries that...more
I read this because it was set in Amsterdam but I wish I hadn't bothered. It was really a waste of time with a vaguely interesting main character (Charlie) in the middle of a stupid story. And not much of a sense of Amsterdam either. It was quick - I can say that for it. I was particularly annoyed by the solving of the mystery with everyone invited by Charlie. What is this - Agatha Christie or Jessica Fletcher? (I confess that I would watch Angela Lansbury in anything including Jessica Fletcher....more
This book was a great change of pace from the usual detective stories. It had the usual plot twists and puzzles as to who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. But this one had a light-hearted, whimsical side to it, which made it fun as well as suspenseful. I've been to Amsterdam so it was fun revisiting some of the landmarks mentioned in the book. The next in the series takes place in Paris, where I have never been, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I think there are other books in the series,...more
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Born in Taunton in 1976, Chris Ewan now lives on the Isle of Man with his wife Jo and their labrador Maisie.
Chris’ debut novel, THE GOOD THIEF’S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM, won the Long Barn Books First Novel Competition and is published in paperback by Simon and Schuster. THE GOOD THIEF’S GUIDE TO PARIS, is due to be published in the UK in February 2009 and in the US in November 2008.
More about Chris Ewan...
Chris’ debut novel, THE GOOD THIEF’S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM, won the Long Barn Books First Novel Competition and is published in paperback by Simon and Schuster. THE GOOD THIEF’S GUIDE TO PARIS, is due to be published in the UK in February 2009 and in the US in November 2008.
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Jan 02, 2011 07:35am