"I want you to steal something for me"
Good opening line don't you think? Ooh what has he got to steal? Let's carry on reading and find out. This request is asked of our hero Charlie Howard. He write caper novels about a career thief and he doesnot have to carry out any background research as he is one himself.
He is asked to steal two monkey figurines. On the face of it they are worthless. They are in two separate locations and he has to steal them both on the same night. Charlie is not sure about this and says no, but then he changes his mind. Of course, later on when the man who asked him so steal them turns up dead, he begins to wish he had stuck to his original refusal but by then he is well and truly up the creek or in the canal (we are in Amsterdam after all) and too late to get out of it.
While trying to find the killer and prove that he is innocent, and the police don't appear to be convinced, he also has to find a way of sorting out a plot hole in his latest novel. Needless to say, his mind is not really focused on this task and spends a lot of time discussing the fix he is in with his agent in London, Victoria, instead of sorting out the problem of getting an all important briefcase with a severed hand in it, to the right place at the right time in order to uncover the murderer without making it too easy for his readers to guess who it is too early in the book. There is a subtle hint here that Victoria rather likes him, she sounds a tad miffed when he gets involved with a glamorous, pot smoking blonde, and is a bit sarky about it all. She is an off stage character, we never get to see her, she is just a voice on the end of the phone, 
but somehow I think she and Charlie should be getting together. We shall see.
You have to concentrate when reading this book because if not you will lose the thread of the plot and wonder what on earth is going on and why did he do that, and who is she really and why did that person break in to this apartment and what did he want and .....you get the drift I am sure. It all ends in a Poirot style denouement with Charlie gathering The Usual Suspects into one location and unraveling the mystery before their disbelieving eyes. And I tell you, this is the bit where you switch off the TV and all outside interruptions and REALLY concentrate. By the end of the story Charlie has decided he has had enough of Amsterdam and takes himself off to Paris, no doubt preparing the reader for The Good Thief's Guide to Paris. And after Paris, whither? I have a nice feeling that he will be visiting a lot of places and writing a lot of Good Thief Guides in the years to come.
This book has success written all over it. Witty, amusing, exciting and written with a sardonic humour. Many years ago, I used to read detective novels written by Laurence Payne. He was a British actor who gradually gave up acting and turned to writing crime fiction. Chris Ewan's style of writing reminded me very much of his, somewhat deadpan and with great throw away lines.
".....I knew the moment we reached my apartment that someone else had been inside. Call it a burglar's intuition. Call it the small things I'd learned during my years of breaking and entering. Call it the fact that my door had been smashed clean off its hinges and was lying flat on my living room floor"
The book's production values are very high. The paper is is smooth and glossy with a lovely feel when you run your hand over it, it is beautifully bound (stitched thank goodness) and when you take the dust jacket off its red cover with gold lettering is equally satisfactory. And the cover is great - three gold wise monkeys, the key to the whole story, on the front page contrasting nicely with the sepia background.
Oh and if this book and subsequent ones do not turn up as a TV series some time in the future I shall be most surprised. It has ALL the ingredients. Now, I shall have to start my usual game and see who I think could play Charlie....
Chris Ewan is the winner of the 2007 Long Barn Books First Novel Competition. Helen Slavin won in 2006 with.The Extra Large Medium another great find and great read.
Can't wait for 2008.
