Publisher’s write-up:
‘In Amsterdam working on his
latest novel, Charlie is approached by a mysterious American who asks him to
steal two apparently worthless monkey figurines from two separate addresses on
the same night. At first he says no. Then he changes his mind. Only later,
kidnapped and bound to a chair, the American very dead and a spell in police
custody behind him, does Charlie begin to realise how costly a mistake he might
have made.
The police think he killed the
American. Others think he knows the whereabouts of the elusive third monkey.
But for Charlie only three things matter: Can he clear his name? Can he get
away with the haul of a lifetime? And can he solve the briefcase-shaped
plot-hole in his latest novel?’
In crime fiction, the protagonist
is usually a detective (police or private) or a journalist, but this book
features the lead character Charlie Howard who is a crime fiction writer and a
part time thief. Charlie is from the UK and is currently living in Amsterdam,
in the process of completing his next novel.
Charlie is approached by an
American, Michael Park, who has a job for him – to steal two monkey figurines
made of plaster for a fee of € 20,000. While Charlie has exact instructions on
how to carry out the mission, the plan falls apart and Michael is fatally
injured. It does not take long for the police to find Charlie and is a suspect for
the attack on the American; while Charlie is no way an honourable character,
this is certainly a crime that he did not commit. The rest of the plot revolves
around his own investigations on why he was approached for the job and the importance of the seemingly worthless monkey figurines.
The author got into the plot
immediately and the city of Amsterdam was used well – be it the description of
the canals, the cafes and the seventeenth century houses. It was interesting to
read crime fiction from the perspective of a thief and why Charlie became a
burglar also had a good background story. Apart from Charlie, I was also
satisfied with the supporting characters, the barmaid Marieke who is acquainted
to both Michael and Charlie and has a critical role throughout the plot,
the investigating officer Buggrave; all of these characters have a past which
becomes an important part of the plot and the way the past unfolded and
connected to the present kept me gripped. The book had a good start, and I was
satisfied with the conclusion and the way it unfolded as aforementioned, but
the book seemed a drag in between (especially the segments where Charlie was trying to fix plot holes in his own upcoming book), which had significantly reduced my pace in reading the book.
Much as Charlie was interesting –
a famous writer cum thief, I also found him to be vain, who is too proud of his
achievements as a writer and also, his prowess in burglary (and his actions in
the book made me seriously doubt both). There were aspects about his
character that was not convincing, wherein, he is a famous writer, but nobody
knows the real Charlie Howard to the extent that he does not use his own
picture in his book cover, which neither the public nor anyone in the general
public know about (hard to believe). There were times where I felt it was very
evident that it was the author’s first novel – wherein, Charlie was surprised to
learn that the monkey figurines probably had more value than being merely intrinsic
to Michael; which was obvious to the reader from the very beginning (I am not
revealing any more on their significance).
To be honest, I started reading
this book with no expectations. The only reason I had this book in my Kindle
was because, sometime around the end of 2017, the book was available for
free. I did not bother reading the book till I had planned an Amsterdam trip
myself (which is forthcoming on a date after the publishing of this review) and I do not regret the decision, the book has laid a good foundation,
there were shortcomings like how I felt the narration and dialogues were a
little too flat but I hope it improves in the series (the next book happens to be
Charlie’s adventures in the city I live in at present, so, should be interesting
for me).
To conclude, I would say that the
book convinced me enough to continue with the series and I would award the book
a rating of six on ten.
Rating – 6/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
Andy
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