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Dec 28, 2008

Good Thief's Guide To Amsterdam

Loved this but it triggered a memory of another writer I used to love reading. I went through a serious teenage sci-fi phase and then for reasons I couldn't figure out I stopped reading altogether. Then I came across the Lovejoy books by Jonathon Gash, Lovejoy is a shifty antiques dealer and his mis-adventures kept me entertained over the whole summer The Judas Pair being one of my absolute favourites. The Good Theif's Guide made me want to dig them out and re-read them but they never survived the move to the US.

Anyway here's the review

Charlie Howard, writer and sometime career criminal is approached by a mysterious American in an Amsterdam bar and asked to steal a couple of worthless objects from two separate men on the same night. Charlie says no way to start with but ends up doing the job out of curiousity but when he goes to meet the American he finds him dead. The police think Charlie killed him but can't prove it so Charlie goes up against the seedier side of Amsterdam to find the 3 wise monkeys who could prove his innocence. All the while trying to fix a huge plot hole in his latest novel and meeting con men, corruption and diamonds along the way an entertaining read and a character I hope to read more of.

Dec 24, 2008

A rare moment of peace

In between all the shoveling, shopping etc the snow relented yesterday long enough for me to finish the 77 Clocks and start the Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam. Fowler (77 Clocks) is one of those writers where you just go with the characters and let the whole thing unfold - really enjoyed this one - not sure which one of his to read next, Ten Second Staircase I think. Another Christopher - Ewan this time - is keeping me reading the Good Thief's Guide, I love the idea of a writer whose research into his thief character comes from personal experience and it's set in one of my favourite cities - Amsterdam - so far so good.

Dec 18, 2008

My top books of 2008

They are in no particular order as I love them all.

Rose Labyrinth - Titania Hardie
Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society
The Victoria Vanishes - Christopher Fowler
Curse of the Spellmans - Lisa Lutz
Likeness - Tana French
In the Woods - Tana French
Losing You - Nicci French
In Defence of Food - Michael Pollan
Little Book - Seldon Edwards
Murder Book - Martinez
Pure in Heart - Susan Hill

Also the year I discovered the prolific Laurie King and Christopher Fowler.

Last post of 2008 - 2009 titles I have lined up (hopefully) Silent Man, Scavengers Manifesto, Fault Tree, Revenge of the Spellmans and many more.

Merry Christmas!

Dec 9, 2008

New books this week

New for me anyway.

Currently I'm reading the arc of the PD James The Private Patient - it's good so far and Dalgleish hasn't even come on the scene yet. Still working my way through the 2 Cara Blacks that Wendy lent me and I've finally got my copy of The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan. Christmas is trying to take over my life I'm being invited to all sorts of things some with Chris some without I haven't even got the deccies up properly yet and we've got the parents arriving a fortnight Saturday at least the snow yesterday made it seem a bit more Christmassy (yes I know that's not really a word!) In between all this and a ton of extra shifts at TKE I'm trying to work out a Plot Map for my book and making a few adjustments to version 3.5.