The Good Thief's Guides are… OK

OK, time to play catch up on blog postings.

I think I found this series of books by British author, Chris Ewan, when I was searching for audiobooks read by Simon Vance. These came up on Library to Go and even though I hadn’t heard of them, I thought I’d give them a try. The series features Charlie Howard, a moderately successful mystery novelist who supplements his income with a secondary career as a more than moderately successful thief. Old-style burglary is his crime of choice.

Not willing to stay in one place for too long, Charlie moves from city to city, avoiding most of the trappings of long term relationships and settling instead for a pattern consisting of: write a novel, commit some heists, and then move on. Oh, and there’s the fact that he usually gets the crap beat out of him at least once in every book, double crosses some bad guys, and is encouraged by local authorities (who can’t convict him of anything because he’s usually helping them) to move along at the end.

The first book, The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam, was published in 2007. Paris, Vegas, and Venice followed. It looks like AudioGo picked up the audio rights in 2011. I don’t think these are the best books I’ve ever listened to – not by a longshot, but they have all been irritatingly intriguing – maybe this time he won’t get the crap beat out of him???? The mysteries have been pretty good, too.

As always, Simon Vance is an outstanding reader, and will more often than not sway me toward listening to a book that he narrates just for the simple reason that I’m pretty sure he won’t disappoint me.

I don’t think I would ever lose sleep waiting for the next edition of the series to come out, but at the same time, I just noticed that The Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin has just been released. I’ll have to go download it. Maybe this time he won’t get the crap beat out of him!

It seems I'm unable to embed or link directly to the soundbite  of the reliable Mr. Vance reading from a Good Thief's Guide so you'll have to click here and click on the sample button when you get to the page for the audiobook.
 

 Listen Up!

The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam, (7 hrs, 16 mins), AudioGo, 2011

The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris, (8 hrs, 20 mins), AudioGo, 2011
The Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas, (8 hrs, 9 mins), AudioGo, 2011
The Good Thief’s Guide to Venice, (8 hrs, 47 mins), AudioGo, 2011
The Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin, (8 hrs, 30 mins), AudioGo, 2013