Good Thief's Guide to Paris [Hardcover]

Chris Ewan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009

The moment I’d scanned the outside of the building, I turned to Bruno and said, “First impressions, it looks straightforward.” Looking back, I can’t help but wonder what I was thinking. I mean, put that line at the opening of a crime novel and it’s practically a guarantee that everything is about to get complicated.

Charlie Howard—globe-trotting mystery writer, professional thief, and poor decision maker—is in Paris. Flush with the success of his latest book reading, not to mention a few too many glasses of wine, Charlie agrees to show a complete novice how to break into an apartment in the Marais. Fast-forward twenty-four hours and Charlie’s hired to steal an ordinary-looking oil painting—from the exact same address.

Mere coincidence? Charlie figures there’s no harm in finding out—until a dead body turns up in his living room and he finds himself evading the law while becoming caught up in a quite outrageous heist. And that’s before Charlie’s literary agent, Victoria (who’s naive enough to assume that he looks like his author photo), finally decides they should meet face-to-face.

Nobody ever said a life of suspense was easy, but Charlie, the most disarmingly charming burglar since Cary Grant, soon finds things are getting way out of control.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Mystery author and professional thief Charlie Howard is back in an all-new comic caper, this time set in the City of Lights. Having recently published a fake (but not really fake) memoir of a professional thief, Charlie is on the book circuit in Paris and falls in with a bohemian crowd living and working at the Paris Lights bookshop. He breaks into an apartment on a lark with a fan he met at a reading and the next day is offered a job to break into the same apartment. That might not have been so bad if the owner hadn’t turned up murdered in his apartment later that day. Charlie is on the run, trying to finish the job, get his money, keep his good name, and stay alive. This time, though, his ever-useful London agent, Victoria, is in Paris, and although she is not happy to discover Charlie’s lies, she is willing to help. Fast and funny, Ewan’s second offering in the Good Thief series is even better than the first, with more fully developed secondary characters and a tighter plot. Charlie and Victoria’s discussions of mystery stories and plotting problems in Charlie’s latest novel are just one of the reasons this series stands out from the crowd. --Jessica Moyer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Long Barn Books (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1902421469
• ISBN-13: 978-1902421469
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,017,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Ewan was selected by a Huffington Post poll as one of America's Favorite British Authors. He is the author of the Good Thief's Guide series of mystery novels about crime writer and professional burglar-for-hire Charlie Howard. His first novel, THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM, won the Long Barn Books First Novel Award, run by the author Susan Hill. AMSTERDAM, THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO PARIS and THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO VEGAS have all been shortlisted for CrimeFest's Last Laugh Award. Chris' latest novel is THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO VENICE. He lives in a small village in the Isle of Man with his wife, Jo, and their labrador, Maisie, where he spends his days planning imaginary burglaries and learning how to pick locks. His neighbours are thrilled. Find out more at: www.thegoodthief.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Ewan suffers the classic sophomore stumble, November 7, 2011

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Good Thief's Guide to Paris: A Mystery (Good Thief's Guides) (Paperback)

This is Ewan's second novel about Charlie Howard, mystery novelist-slash-gentleman burglar, and while it's not bad, it's not as good as the first one (set in Amsterdam) -- or, for that matter, the third one (Vegas). Charlie's good at making bad decisions and proves it, while in an intoxicated state in the City of Lights, by taking a fee to mentor a young would-be burglar on his first break-in -- into his own apartment. Or so Charlie thinks. Then his fence in Paris passes on to Charlie his next assignment: Breaking into the very same apartment to steal an exceedingly mediocre oil painting in exchange for way too much money. But the painting is already gone. And when it gets home, he finds the owner of the apartment he burgled (twice) is now dead and tied to one of his kitchen chairs. And if all that isn't enough, his agent and closest friend, Victoria, comes on an unexpected visit from London -- and she doesn't even know what he really looks like, having always assumed the jacket photo on his books was genuine.

The set-up is pretty good and there are enough puzzles and unexplained happenings to keep the reader almost as busy trying to figure things out as Charlie is himself. But after awhile, with two separate art thefts, a murder, a whole series of mysterious phone calls, and a not-very-convincing government-employed fixer, it all becomes rather *too* complicated. And as the questions mount up, the pace of the narrative slows down. By the halfway point, I was trying to decide whether the satisfaction of finding out whodunit was sufficient payback for plowing through the rest of the story. (I found I couldn't not finish it.) I'm not even sure all of the questions were answered and all the secondary mysteries solved. Moreover, Ewan makes many of the same sort of grammatical errors and gaffes in vocabulary that plagued his first book, such as appearing to believe "in," "into," and "inside" are interchangeable. So while it's not a bad book, it would definitely have benefited from tighter editing and some hand-holding editorial rewrite.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Thief, Good Entertainment, but not Good English, July 11, 2011

By 

disheveledprofessor "disheveledprofessor" (the home of the Blue Angels) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Thief's Guide to Paris (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this mystery, and will look for others by Chris Ewan. Light read, wry humor, good characters, good plot with good twists. I did find some of the grammatical errors [use of "me" when "I" was appropriate; incorrect use of the subjunctive "if I was to ...", etc.]distracting; is that carping? But on the whole, a recommended read.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Follow-up, May 22, 2010

By 

Bruce Harlick (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Good Thief's Guide to Paris: A Mystery (Good Thief's Guides) (Paperback)

This was an entertaining follow-up to Ewan's debut novel. Good story, good characters, a nice escapist read.