The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris

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.)