The Sacred Art of Stealing

An amazing amount of fun.

Local jokes, local scenery (I live in Glasgow), characters you actually care about, several points where I laughed out loud and still more misleading back-story, twists, turns, muddied trails, double-crosses and red herrings than in many books that view themselves as "serious" thrillers.

Pure dead brilliant, as they say.

A good, fast-moving read. Brookmyre tells a solid heist story with some nice twists and turns and a big dollop of ill-starred romance, and he has a good eye for an engaging character. The writing style is wry and darkly funny without dropping into "humour" territory. He also conjures a brilliant evocation of Glasgow, both its good and bad aspects, that makes me want to go back and see the place again.

Thought at first I might end up skimming this book, though it was loaned to me by a non-reader friend who said she's read it five times. Now I know why. The Situationist bank heist, acting "Waiting for Godot" for the hostages, magic, bad guys, strong woman, dialect, fun and funny, terrific novel.

My favourite Brookmyre. Nods to Elmore Leonard's 'Out of sight' and similarly you end wanting the next episode in this unlikely romance between a cop and robber.

Very clever and uplifting - good linkage all the way through with a couple of unexpected small surprises. For me a slow start which soon gained pace - a very addictive memorable book.

Well loved modern mystery with some zany ideas. It is technically the second in a series, but reviewers generally agree it is a much better book than the first one.

competent, if far fetched, crime caper.