There are not many books I always look forward to re-reading, but this gem is definitely one of them. The brilliantly named Angelique de Xavia is a police detective that pops up in a few Christopher Brookmyre novels, and here she has to battle the age-old crime novel problem of catching bank robbers and art thieves. However, in Brookmyre's hands, this narrative takes such clever twists and turns that it never once feels cliched or predictable.
The action starts with five men dressed as clowns and named after Dadaist painters (Dali, Jarry) who dance their way into a bank in broad daylight. You know this is going to be good. The other great aspect of The Sacred Art of Stealing is Angelique's tantalising relationship with the very charasmatic American Zal, who also happens to be one of the criminals she is chasing. Naughty.
Angelique and Zal's story is picked up again in a later Brookmyre novel, A Snowball in Hell, which is also a brilliant read. It sees Angelique hunting down a crazed murderer who has had enough of the Z-list celebrity culture and is killing off all the plebs who are famous for no reason. Admit it, we would all like to do that really.......
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