The Sacred Art Of Stealing

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

“Exhilarating linguistic fluency and keenly subversive intelligence”

'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 '' 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

Chris Brookmyre was a journalist before becoming a full time novelist with the publication of QUITE UGLY ONE MORNING. Since the publication of A BIG BOY DID IT AND RAN AWAY he and his family decided to move away from Aberdeen and now live near Glasgow. Oh, yes.

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

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