The Good Thief's Guide to Berlin

Starred review from June 10, 2013
A burglary assignment brokered by Charlie Howard’s agent, Victoria Newbury, proves much more trouble than it’s worth in Ewan’s outstanding fifth Good Thief’s Guide mystery (after 2011’s The Good Thief’s Guide to Venice). A representative of the British embassy in Berlin offers the professional thief a tidy sum to break into the homes of four people in search of something that the embassy official won’t describe (“You’ll recognize it when you see it”). The first apartment Charlie burgles has nothing of obvious value, but before leaving, he glances out the window and sees a murder in progress across the way. Torn between doing the right thing and self-preservation, he calls the crime into the police and watches as they enter the building and emerge without corpse or killer. Meanwhile, his search for the McGuffin attracts the attention of certain parties who aren’t hesitant to use violence. Ewan perfectly blends tension and humor in a neatly constructed plot. Agent: Valerie Borchardt, Georges Borchardt Literary Agency.

August 1, 2013
Charlie Howard witnesses a murder, but since there's no body, nobody believes him. Suave British mystery writer Charlie usually indulges his burgling sideline, he explains in expansive first-person narration, only when he's enticed, but his current challenge is unique. Shady Freddy Farmer, whose disreputable brother Nathan is well-known to Charlie, says he's working for the British embassy in Berlin and blackmails Charlie into recovering an unnamed but valuable item that's been stolen. Charlie is tasked with breaking into the lodging of each of the four suspects in search of said missing item. He'll know it when he sees it, Freddy assures him. Dubious but intrigued, Charlie enlists his bantering agent, Victoria, as a reluctant accomplice and sets to work. Indeed, at the second place he breaks into, he knows immediately that he's hit pay dirt, probably since it's a folder marked "Top Secret." All goes well until it doesn't. First, two men with Russian accents and loaded guns steal the file. And, at one of the apartments, Charlie sees a woman being strangled to death but arrives too late to save (or find) her. Given Charlie's puckish personality, it's not surprising that everyone is skeptical at best. Charlie and Victoria are forced to team up with Freddy to steal back the invaluable file. They ultimately land smack in the middle of a delicate diplomatic situation, which naturally leads back to that strangled woman. Charlie's fifth romp (The Good Thief's Guide To Venice, 2011, etc.) rests much on the charm of its hero, which can at times wear thin.

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July 1, 2013
Thief and mystery writer Charlie Howard is enjoying Berlin, mainly because there's so much to steal, which keeps his mind off the problems he's having with his latest book. Then things get dicey. The British Foreign Office requires Charlie's expertise to break into the homes of four embassy employees suspected of stealing a sensitive itemso sensitive that Charlie's contact won't tell him what he's supposed to look for. Throw in a Rear Window angle when Charlie, on the job, sees a murder being committed in the apartment across the street, and you have more than enough to keep a blocked writer away from his desk. Ah, but there's more. Charlie's simmering relationship with his fetching agent, Victoria, heats up this time, both romantically and ethically, as Victoria, always titillated by Charlie's thieving, becomes embroiled in the action, prompting crises of conscience on multiple fronts. As usual, Ewan keeps the action and the humor cantering along at a comfortably swift pace, but this time there's a startling finale that will have fans craving more. For everyone who misses Lawrence Block's equally good and amusing thief Bernie Rhodenbarr, Charlie is the ideal stand-in.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)