Exclusive interview with author Chris Ewan and a review of his A Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin Rating:
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“The concept behind the Good Thief’s Guide novels was to combine elements of crime fiction and travel fiction by writing about a globetrotting burglar, and to set each novel in the series in a different international city,” says A Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin author Chris Ewan.
“In terms of the individual books, my ideas often come from trying to reverse what a reader might expect. So, in The Good Thief’s Guide to Venice, the reversal at the heart of the novel is that my burglar, Charlie Howard, gets burgled. The novel opens with Charlie being hired to steal a specific object, but with his client refusing to tell him what exactly it is that he’s searching for.”
This is Ewan’s fifth Good Thief’s Guide mystery. The plot engages you from the beginning. His use of watching out a window is classic Hitchcock, and makes you wonder what will happen next. Why was he picked to find the missing item? Is he being set up? The tension builds throughout the book but with plenty of humorous moments to break the tension. A great read.
Charlie Howard has moved to Berlin to work on his book, but instead of writing he’s been stealing. He’s addicted to the thrill and careful who he steals from. When someone from the British Embassy asks him to find a missing object he needs to check the four embassy employees’ homes. The catch, Charlie doesn’t know what he’s searching for. He’s told he’ll recognize it when he sees it.
Charlie has a few rules as a thief. Never get caught and only take from people who can afford it. After getting to the first house and looking around he can’t figure out what the item is. He stops to stare out the window it’s how he does his best thinking. It’s time to add a new rule. Don’t admire the view. The reason, across the way he see a woman being choked to death. Charlie calls the police from the phone in the house he’s burgling. Then quickly leaves to join Victoria, his literary agent. When the police find no body, Charlie decides to discover what happened to the woman. He and Victoria become embroiled in more than finding a missing item.
“Writing the next book is always the toughest thing for me and it’s what I always focus on,” says Ewan. “After that, I’m just grateful to have a publisher value my writing and work with me to get my books to a wider audience.”
Ewan was born in Taunton, Somerset, and lives on the Isle of Man.
“The Isle of Man is a separate country from the UK, with its own laws and police force,” says Ewan. “It has a population of approximately 80,000 people and is probably best known for the annual TT motorbike races that take place every late May into June. It’s a fun place to live but it’s also a place filled with rumors. One of the recurring rumors I’ve heard since I’ve lived on the island is that it is used as a place to relocate people involved in UK government witness protection schemes. True or not, this rumor is what led me to write Safe House.”
www.chrisewan.com. Twitter.com@chrisewan. https://www.facebook.com/chris.ewan
The Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin (Charlie Howard) Book 5 by Chris Ewan• Hardcover, 336 pages, Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (August 6, 2013) • Language: English, ISBN13: 9781250002976 $ 25.99
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