Good Thief

Two Good Thieves
$11.06
In the searing heat of an unnamed South American city, a gang of child-thieves runs wild. Demi has the gift of speed - he can pick a pocket and be gone before his victim has even noticed he was there. Baz is his lookout - no one sees her unless she wants them to. It's like a game: dodging the law, keeping one step ahead, being the fastest, the cleverest, the best. But one day, almost by accident, they steal a dazzling, beautiful, priceless jewel - and make a very dangerous enemy. Suddenly they're sucked into a world where children's lives are worthless, where the rich and powerful are just adults who steal on a much grander scale, and where secrets are traded like gold. Their only hope is to make a brave bid for freedom - to head upcountry, away from the unrelenting heat, the dried-up river, the only home they've ever known. When good and bad are meaningless, two child thieves become the beating moral heart of an unputdownable thriller.

The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam
$13.95
I read a ton of mystery novels. It's very rare that I feel I have uncovered a "new voice", or a fresh premise. The main character is flawed but likeable, the plot is intriguing and tight, and the pacing is perfect. After I read it, I immediately went online to find out if "The Good Thief's Guide to Paris" was out yet - finally, it is! Fans of Craig Johnson and other "self-deprecating hero with a sense of humor" novels will enjoy this. Having visited Amsterdam, it was also fun to picture the scenes in various places as they were "painted" by the author and my own memory.

The Good Thief
$14.99
To be honest, I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. The trope isn't one of my favorites, but the characters were likeable and developed.

I think it could have done with about five fewer sex scenes and without the "cum" spelling. But those aren't really enough to detract from the overall story.

What does detract from the story is the shoddy writing and editing. There are so many grammatical mistakes in this book that no published author has any excuse to be making; I find myself wondering if there even WAS an editing process before the book went to print.

I'm talking about:
-comma splices and run on sentences. Learn how to use a semi-colon (;) and both those problems will be cleared right up.

-book is told from 3rd person limited perspectives that alternate between Caesar and Nate. "You" is a second person pronoun. Unless it's in dialogue, it should not show up in third person narrative. It definitely should not show up with the frequency that it did in this book.

-despite how the author may have been pronouncing the word his whole life, the French word for appetizer is "hors d'oeuvre" not "hors devours".

-comparative sentences: "then" and "than" are not interchangeable. Every time the author had sentence of "would rather do x then y" he should have been using "than".

-epithets. "the cop" or "the thief" or "the blond" work great when you're identifying strangers or characters who've not been introduced. When you're referring to characters the reader already knows it's sounds strange. How often do you think of friends, family, or lovers in terms of "the blond" or "the mail carrier"? You wouldn't; so don't have your characters do it.

-everything was so good and so amazing and so blue and so tight. Is the author aware that there are other adverbs out their for conveying these same ideas? The book read like a broken record.

And more besides. As an editor, I couldn't recommend this book as it is. Maybe a reprint with very heavy editing.

The Good Thief: A Novel
$15.00
Ren, an orphan missing a hand, is adopted by Benjamin Nab. Ren is excited to finally have a "family," but he soon learns that Benjamin and his friend, Tom, are thieves and con artists. Ren begins finding his way among the rag-tag team and learns more about himself and his background.

The plot to The Good Thief sounds familiar, and the principle characters are your standard "thieves with a heart of gold," but I still feel Tinti has created an exciting and interesting story with likable characters. Ren's principle feature is his missing hand, but the lost limb rarely affects the way he lives his life. His strong Catholic upbringing adds an interesting additional dimension in the beginning of the novel, but Ren's belief seems to be less important later in the book.

About half-way through, the semi-realistic movement of the book disappears as the events become more and more outlandish. However, even the deus ex machina which ends the book does not feel overly contrived or unrewarding for the reader.