The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam


Book Description

Originally published: Great Britain: Long Barn Books, 2007.




The Good Thief's Guide to Paris


Book Description

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.




The Good Thief's Guide to Venice


Book Description

Charlie Howard, gentleman thief and famous crime-writer, has gone straight. But holing himself up in a crumbling palazzo in Venice in an attempt to concentrate on his next novel hasn't got rid of the itch in his fingers. And to make matters worse, a striking Italian beauty has just broken into his apartment and made off with his most prized possession, leaving a puzzling calling card in its place.It looks as though kicking the habit of a lifetime will be much more of a challenge than Charlie thought. Sneaking out into Venice's maze of murky canals, and trying not to relish being back on the job too much, Charlie's efforts to be reunited with his treasured first-edition of The Maltese Falconquickly embroil him in a plot that is far bigger and more explosive than he could ever have imagined. But by the time he finds himself bundling his first ever hostage into a trunk on a speedboat and on the run from the poliziahe has to admit that he is in way too deep.




Safe House


Book Description

A brilliant thriller from the author of the acclaimed Good Thief's Guide series asks, how can a beautiful woman simply vanish? When Rob Hale wakes up in a hospital after a motorcycle crash, his first thought is for the gorgeous blonde, Lena, who was on the back of his bike. The doctors and police, however, insist that he was alone at the scene. The shock of the accident must have made him imagine Lena, especially since his description of her resembles his late sister, Laura. Convinced that Lena is as real as he is, Rob teams up with Rebecca Lewis, a London-based PI who has a mysterious connection to Laura—and learns that even a close-knit community like the Isle of Man can hide dangerous secrets that will not stay safe forever. Chris Ewan's Safe House "is an exciting, well crafted thriller, with flashes of real humour and insight." (SJ Bolton).




The Good Thief's Guide to Berlin


Book Description

Enjoying a thieving spree from his new home in Berlin, part-time writer Charlie Howard is summoned by Her Majesty's Government to recover a sensitive item allegedly stolen by four embassy employees.




Things We Didn't See Coming


Book Description

Michael Williams, in Melbourne’s The Age, wrote of this award-winning, dazzling debut collection, “By turns horrific and beautiful . . . Humanity at its most fractured and desolate . . . Often moving, frequently surprising, even blackly funny . . . Things We Didn’t See Coming is terrific.” This is just one of the many rave reviews that appeared on the Australian publication of these nine connected stories set in a not-too-distant dystopian future in a landscape at once utterly fantastic and disturbingly familiar. Richly imagined, dark, and darkly comic, the stories follow the narrator over three decades as he tries to survive in a world that is becoming increasingly savage as cataclysmic events unfold one after another. In the first story, “What We Know Now”—set in the eve of the millennium, when the world as we know it is still recognizable—we meet the then-nine-year-old narrator fleeing the city with his parents, just ahead of a Y2K breakdown. The remaining stories capture the strange—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny—circumstances he encounters in the no-longer-simple act of survival; trying to protect squatters against floods in a place where the rain never stops, being harassed (and possibly infected) by a man sick with a virulent flu, enduring a job interview with an unstable assessor who has access to all his thoughts, taking the gravely ill on adventure tours. But we see in each story that, despite the violence and brutality of his days, the narrator retains a hold on his essential humanity—and humor. Things We Didn’t See Coming is haunting, restrained, and beautifully crafted—a stunning debut.




A Patriot's History of the United States


Book Description

For the past three decades, many history professors have allowed their biases to distort the way America’s past is taught. These intellectuals have searched for instances of racism, sexism, and bigotry in our history while downplaying the greatness of America’s patriots and the achievements of “dead white men.” As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington; more about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II than about D-Day or Iwo Jima; more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin. A Patriot’s History of the United States corrects those doctrinaire biases. In this groundbreaking book, America’s discovery, founding, and development are reexamined with an appreciation for the elements of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that make this nation uniquely successful. This book offers a long-overdue acknowledgment of America’s true and proud history.




The Interview


Book Description

The Interview is a gripping locked-room thriller from C. M. Ewan, the acclaimed author of A Window Breaks and the half-a-million-copy bestseller Safe House. It's 5 p.m. on a Friday. You have been called to an interview for your dream job. In a stunning office thirteen floors above the city below, you are all alone with the man interviewing you. Everyone else has gone home for the weekend. The interview gets more and more disturbing. You're feeling scared. Your only way out is to answer a seemingly impossible question. If you can't . . . what happens next? What authors are saying . . . 'C.M. Ewan never once drops the pace in this heart-pounding rollercoaster of a thriller that had me up all night' - Clare Mackintosh, author of Hostage 'A brilliant hook, a breakneck game of cat and mouse, and twists galore' - Tim Weaver, author of The Shadow at the Door 'A fast-paced twisty read that races along like an action movie' - Sarah Pinborough, author of Insomnia 'I can't stop thinking about The Interview. I loved it' - Sarah Hilary, author of Fragile 'I couldn't put The Interview down. Totally brilliant' - B A Paris, author of The Therapist 'A terrifying, heart-stopping ride' - Sharon Bolton, author of The Split 'So tense and twisty. An absolute nail-biter of a novel!' - Gilly Macmillan, author of The Long Weekend What readers are saying . . . 'Oh boy did I enjoy this book! The definition of a keep you up all night, read in one sitting thriller' 'I read this beauty in a day, had so much else to do but just couldn't put it down' 'Wow, this book blew me away! I was hooked immediately and found the concept, both exciting and highly original' 'YOU GUYS! If you haven't read this book, DO IT NOW!'




Long Time Lost


Book Description

'A rising star of the genre.' SIMON KERNICK 'Action-packed, twist-laden and full of heart. Long Time Lost builds on Chris Ewan's reputation as one of the most exciting and original crime writers around.' EVA DOLAN The must read new thriller from the bestselling author of Safe House 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's 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 - because Nick and Kate share a common enemy in Connor Lane, a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means tearing Nick's entire network apart.




Girl in the Blue Coat


Book Description

This bestselling and award-winning novel about a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam speaks powerfully to the realities of grief, heartbreak, and bravery, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Ruta Sepetys. Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person—a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action. Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary novel about courage, grief, and love in impossible times.