The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam

Chris Ewan's The Good Thief's Guide to Paris was such an engaging mystery that as soon as I finished it, I checked out the first book in the series, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam. In an art imitates life imitates art scenario, the series' charming hero/thief/author, Charlie Howard, writes pulp mysteries and also steals for a living. Like most popular authors, Charlie explains. he has a website with information about his books, some biographical information and an email contact link. And of course, Chris Owen has a website about his books which also lists the fictional Charlie's books, so again there is a sly and circular humor here as in the books. Charlie is a dab hand with lock picks and GTGParis concludes with an illustrated lesson in lock picking which can also be found on the website. The art imitates life probably stops there though because Mr. Ewan is a lawyer, the flyleaf says, and not a thief.
If you enjoy light, funny mysteries like Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr (bookseller and burglar) or the Saint mysteries by Leslie Charteris (Simon Templar was the thief in that series) try Chris Ewan's the Good Thief's Guide to... or if you have read them both, wait for Charlie's adventures in Las Vegas, next in the series.