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The Sacred Art of Stealing
 
 
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The Sacred Art of Stealing (Paperback)

by Christopher Brookmyre (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Frequently Bought Together

The Sacred Art of Stealing + A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away (Abacus Books) + A Snowball in Hell
Total RRP: £25.97
Price For All Three: £17.93

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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (4 May 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349114900
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349114903
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 12,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #6 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Brookmyre, Christopher
    #6 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > B > Brookmyre, Christopher

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Product Description

Review

'A thriller, love story, social satire and a warning against taking absurdism too seriously..' TIME OUT 'Chris Brookmyre is a genius.' DAILY MIRROR 'Brookmyre has no equal.' MAXIM 'Exhilarating linguistic fluency and keenly subversive intelligence' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'Brookmyre pulls out all the stops in this one. His talent for creating bizzare situations, unlikely relationships and complex characters has never been more in evidence. Illusion is paramount in this novel. And it is achieved with an impressive literary sleight of hand.' WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY 'Brilliant.' GLASGOW HERALD 'Home-grown thrillers as fun and funky as this come along all too rarely, so make the most of it.' SUNDAY TIMES 'If you enjoy intelligently written crime thrillers with a healthy dollop of satire, then this will be the answer to your prayers.' MORNING STAR 'Raw, obscene, irreverant, punchy and sarcastic, this is a clever, off-beat story-line handled with funky dexterity.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE 'Brookmyre finds a rich vein of satire when pondering whether cops and robbers (or even Celtic and Rangers fans) can ever really be friends.' DAILY MAIL 'All in all, it's a cracking read, and one that's likely to make you say 'Aaaahhhh' at the end. Result.' HEAT 'I found myself laughing my way through this exhileratingly funny tale, and found his intelligent observations refreshing.' ABERDEEN PRESS AND JOURNAL 'An entertaining read.' NEW WOMAN

Product Description

Their eyes met across a crowded room. She was just a poor servant girl and he was the son of a rich industrialist. Er, no, this is a Christopher Brookmyre novel, although the eyes meeting across a crowded room part is true. Where it differs from the fairy tales is that the room in question was crowded with hostages and armed bank-robbers, and his eyes were the only part of him she could see behind the mask. He is an art-thief par excellence and she is a connoisseur of crooks. Her job is to hunt him to extinction; his is to avoid being caught and he also has a secret agenda more valuable than anything he might steal. There are risks he can take without jeopardising his plans. He can afford to play cat-and-mouse with the female cop who's on his tail; it might even arguably be necessary. What he can't afford is to let her get too close: he could could end up in jail or, even more scary, he could end up in love ...Visit the author's website at www.brookmyre.co.uk
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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars de Xavia returns to deal with the oddest robber in Scotland, 10 Oct 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Sacred Art of Stealing (Paperback)
Anqelique de Xavia (A Big Boy, etc.) returns in a book that shows a slight homage to Soderbergh's "Out of Touch" - only the film wasn't quite as funny and featured fewer invectives about Glaswegian Football fans.

The oddest bank robbery ever takes place in Buchanan St and de Xavia ends up as part of the show. Still not over the events in the previous book (a terrorist attack at a Scottish dam) she is feeling restless (it being her 30th birthday doesn't help). And her response to the robbers' leader clashes pretty seriously with her professional responsibilities.

The book has as much anger as you expect from Brookmyre, and while not as funny as "One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night" it can certainly cause you to embarrass yourself on crowded transport - several LOLs are a cert.

As usual there are the comparisons to Hiassen, but reading Brookmyre I get something I never get from Hiassen's books - I know where he is coming from. I recognise the backdrop and the politics, and it gives it so much more meaning. It was years before I knew about the provenance of some of Hiassen's characters (sugar - say no more) and it adds so much more. Brookmyre is a damn fine writer - but I can't help looking forward to each book even more because I recognise so much that is brilliantly transferred into print.

And the evil treatment of a right wing journalist should certainly warn anyone who intends to argue his politics of what the response may be!

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Hysterically funny., 11 Feb 2006
This is the second Christopher Brookmyre book I have read; the first was "Boiling a Frog" which was great but this is even better. You'll need to like your humour fairly black to enjoy it and a well developed sense of cynicism also helps, but I can safely say that I haven't enjoyed a book of this genre as much since I first read "Trainspotting".

As a bonus, Brookmyre is a very talented writer who uses language cleverly and is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended, but beware reading in public places as you'll be laughing out loud!

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The sacred art of writing great books..., 18 Oct 2002
By nic (Bucks, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sacred Art of Stealing (Paperback)
Once again Christopher Brookmyre has excelled himself. The Sacred Art of Stealing is incredibly well-written - from the excellently observed characterisations, to the truly funny dialogue and a plot that twists and turns more times than a big bowl of spaghetti. It's just as tasty and satisfying too, while being much, much more witty and entertaining.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and will probably read it again very soon, just to check out exactly how the plot was set and then unravelled so magnificently. If you're after a good read, and a few laughs along the way, this is your book.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars What a joyous read
This is a 5 star read, make no mistake. All the usual Brookmyre elements are there, plus an are they/aren't they couple. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Watson

5.0 out of 5 stars pure dead brilliant
this is the first brookmyre book, finnished it in 4 days. i have now read 5.

lived in glasgow, knew all the sreets and areas, loved his local dialect... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Craig N. Mcgougan

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of Brookmyre
I'm quite a fan of Brookmyre and his Glaswegian sense of humour (a nice antidote to the dark Edinburgh dourness of Ian Rankin, even though he's a far better craftsman to be sure),... Read more
Published 11 months ago by F. H. Riley

3.0 out of 5 stars Great First Half
I gave this three stars just because it's CB and so is immensely readable, but it was almost hard to finish. Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2006 by expatina

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good with a sympatheric villain
It is easy to make your villains two dimensional. But brookmyre has made his villain alomost a protagonist. The story moves along quickly. Read more
Published on 31 July 2006 by bob

5.0 out of 5 stars What A Cool Book!
I was given this as a birthday present and it is my first encounter with Brookmyre and one I thoroughly enjoyed! Read more
Published on 29 July 2006 by Scottish Dave

5.0 out of 5 stars Not his best but very close
I've got every Christopher Brookmyre book having been introduced to him by a friend who was a fan a good while ago. Read more
Published on 21 July 2006 by Mr. Terence Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars New to Brookmyre? Read this one first!
The cleverest, wittiest most cynical of his works to date.

Not everyone will get the humour behind the title but all who read this book will appreciate the skill that's... Read more

Published on 19 Dec 2005 by Mr. B. Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars A breath of fresh air
Picking up a book by accident by an author unknown to you, more often that not, is disappointing. Brookmyre's "The sacred art of stealing" was a joy to read. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2005 by H. Cusack

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilariously funny and very very clever
This is the first Brookmere novel I've read and I loved it.

The ingeneous plot is peppered with clever twists and turns. The characterisation and dialog is superb. Read more

Published on 29 Dec 2004 by Eamonn McGonigle

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