The Good Thief S Guide To Vegas

Chris Ewan's The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas is the next caper in a series that's being called "impressive... comic...fresh" (Publishers Weekly--starred review). Charlie Howard isn't only a part-time crime writer and part-time thief; he's also a magician. For his next trick, he'll relieve Josh Masters, the famous illusionist vying for the affections of Charlie's friend Victoria, of $60,000 in casino chips stashed in his hotel safe. Revenge would be sweet—if there weren't a dead redhead floating in Masters' bathtub and if Masters hadn't just disappeared in a puff of smoke after cheating at roulette. Convinced that Charlie was in on the scam, the casino's owners give him an impossible mission: either pull off an elaborate heist to reimburse the house for every dollar his "accomplice" made off with, or enjoy a one-way trip into the desert.

Charlie, a gentleman thief to rival Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, gallivants around Venice in The Good Thief's Guide to Venice--the next caper in Chris Ewan's sparkling series. After a particularly bad streak of luck in Vegas, Charlie has retreated to Venice, having vowed to give up a life of crime to write crime fiction full-time. But inspiration has yet to strike. And to make matters worse, Charlie's agent Victoria shows up at his door just as his prized first edition of The Maltese Falcon flies out the window with a femme-fatale burglar. Blackmailed into committing a dastardly crime in order to get his book back, Charlie is catapulted into yet another adventure, this one even more explosive than the last.

You can't keep a good thief down . . . Charlie Howard is back and robbing the city of Berlin blind, until he witnesses a murder being committed right before his eyes Charlie Howard, part-time writer, part-time thief, has been engaged in a veritable spree of larceny and misappropriation since moving to Berlin, Germany. He's supposed to be working on his next novel. But high rent and a love for thrill-seeking has been hard on his word count. But Charlie's larcenous binge is interrupted by the call to duty—on behalf of Her Majesty's Government. Four embassy employees are suspected of stealing a sensitive item. Charlie is to break into their homes, find the culprit and recover the stolen property. But there's a catch. The item is so sensitive, Charlie isn't told what he's looking for. Not its size, not its weight, nothing. He's only told that he'll recognize it when he sees it. Charlie has been a successful thief because he follows his own rules, the first being "Don't get caught." Well, after he enters the first suspect's home, he has to add a new rule: "Don't admire the view." As Charlie stares across the street, he sees something he really wishes he hadn't—a woman being murdered. And that's just for starters. What follows is a wild adventure in the former cauldron of spies. With The Good Thief's Guide to Berlin, Chris Ewan shows why he was voted as one of America's favorite British authors by a Huffington Post poll. Clever and wildly entertaining, this is a mystery series that is "big fun" (The Seattle Times).

During a brief trip to Vegas, Charlie Howard - mystery writer and professional thief - is nonplussed to find his agent, Victoria, being charmed by a stage illusionist at a high stakes roulette table. It doesn't help that the illusionist, Josh Masters, has invited Victoria to his sell-out show, nor that he seems to be doing very well at roulette. Still, Charlie's not one to hold a grudge, least of all when he could be holding Masters' wallet. Breaking into the conjurer's hotel room and making off with a pile of casino chips would seem to be adequate compensation. Matters are complicated however when Charlie discovers the trussed-up corpse of Masters' beautiful assistant lying in the bath. When Masters disappears and Charlie is caught with his stolen haul of high denomination chips, his problems have only just begun. Ordered to reimburse the casino for every dollar Masters made off with, it seems to Charlie there's only one way out: break into as many hotel rooms as he can, steal as much as he is able to, and just hope that Victoria can summon lady luck to the gaming table of her choice.

Charlie Howard doesn't just write books about a career thief, he also happens to be one. In Amsterdam working on his latest novel, Charlie is approached by a mysterious American who asks him to steal two apparently worthless monkey figurines from two separate addresses on the same night. At first he says no. Then he changes his mind. Only later, kidnapped and bound to a chair, the American very dead and a spell in police custody behind him, does Charlie begin to realise how costly a mistake he might have made. The police think he killed the American. Others think he knows the whereabouts of the elusive third monkey. But for Charlie only three things matter: Can he clear his name? Can he get away with the haul of a lifetime? And, can he solve the briefcase-shaped plot-hole in his latest novel?

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 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.

Charlie Howard, mystery writer & professional thief, is flush with the success of his Paris book reading when he agrees to show anovice how to break into an apartment. The next day, he is hired to steal a painting from the same address.

“Don’t call anyone else and stay inside the house. Pack a small bag. Just one.” “You’ll come, then?” “I’ll be there soon. But remember, Kate: there’s no going back.” Nick Miller and his team provide a unique and highly illegal service, relocating at-risk individuals across Europe with new identities and new lives. Nick excels at what he does for a reason: he himself spent years living in the shadows under an assumed name. But when Nick steps in to prevent the attempted murder of witness-in-hiding Kate Sutherland on the Isle of Man, he triggers a chain of events with devastating consequences for everyone he protects. Kate—and now Nick—are under attack by Connor Lane, a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means tearing Nick’s entire network apart... Chris Ewan's Long Time Lost is a fast-paced stand-alone thriller that The Independent (UK) calls "masterful...Fellow novelist Ann Cleeves' description of [Chris Ewan] as a 'master storyteller' pretty well hits the nail on the head."