The Sacred Art of Stealing cover art

The Sacred Art of Stealing

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Sacred Art of Stealing

By: Chris Brookmyre
Narrated by: Caroline Guthrie
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

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....

©2002 Christopher Brookmyre (P)2015 W.F. Howes Ltd Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Banking

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller cover art
No Mercy cover art
Deadly Kerfuffle cover art
Jaggy Splinters cover art
The Bonnie Dead cover art
Whisky from Small Glasses cover art
A Man with One of Those Faces cover art
By Any Means Necessary cover art
See Them Run cover art
The Blood Strand cover art
The Short Drop cover art
Midday cover art
Poster Boy cover art
Going Grey cover art
Who Sent Clement? cover art
Open Season cover art

Critic reviews

"A thriller, love story, social satire and a warning against taking absurdism too seriously." ( Time Out)
"Chris Brookmyre is a genius." ( Daily Mirror)
All stars
Most relevant  
The narrator did fine with the Scottish accents (she's Scottish) - but can't do an American accent to save her life .. This had the unfortunate result of constantly ejecting you from the narrative.

Good story/errible accents.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
great story and good performance - let down by poor American accents. everything else great and to be recommended - but there are few whole can nail both Glasgow and West Coast USA accents; the narrator is great with Scottish voices but poor with the American

great story as always

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dreadful American accent by the narrator could really ruin this book for new listeners to Christopher Brookmyre, fortunately I’ve read this book a couple of times, so was almost able to block her out.

Terrible narrating, cracking book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I absolutely love this book and was very much looking forward to hearing the audible version. I didn't even manage the first chapter due to the worst accents I've ever heard ! they are so bad I had to turn it off. Such a shame as this could have and should have been epic.

Appalling accent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoy Brookmyre's books, but this was hard going due to the narrator's inability to perform any kind of American accent. As around half of the characters are from the US, this was problematic.

Good story, spoiled by a dreadful narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don't let other reviews about the narrator stop you listening to this book. It's beyond excellent and nothing but nothing is lost with the style of performance...go on and buy it...you'll be so happy you did 🤗

Spell binding...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No. It's a struggle to persevere through the truly awful narration. Her American accents are awful but so is her voice acting in general. She reads the story ok. I have read the book before and was looking forwards to relaxing into the audiobook. Hugely disappointing.I would suggest that anyone who still enjoys the printed word should read the book instead.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Zal because he is so clever - but the strength of the book is that all the main characters are well drawn and interesting.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Caroline Guthrie?

There are so many male characters in the book that I would have chosen a male narrator who does female voices well such as the remarkable James Masters, but there are others.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's difficult to answer this without revealing too much about the plot but it would probably be the trip to the Louvre. There are so many great moments in this book, such as the conversation between football supporters in the bank, that it is one that I return to every now and again because it is a real 'feel good' book.

Any additional comments?

Even though I have already bought this audiobook, if you find a better narrator, I would probably buy it again. I haven't given away my paperback yet.

more enjoyable to read than to listen sadly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Is there no-one in the United Kingdom capable of reproducing the accents of Scotland who also has a grasp of the accents and idioms of the continental US? If so, you’d think they’d have been auditioned for a role where almost all of the main characters have US accents. The reproduction evident in this audiobook sounded like kids playing cowboys in school playgrounds. It was really distracting.

The US accents!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As most of the other reviewers note, the narration is truly terrible because of complete inability with US and Mexican accents. Had I not previously read the book when it first came out, I would not have persisted. The story is classic Brookmyre and worth enduring the narration for

Classic Brookmyre, Awful Narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is only the second Christopher brookmyre book I have listened too, and it was as good as the first. Fabulous story telling, interesting characters and humour, the last a real bonus. The American accents were a bit odd, but even with that it was brilliantly read.

Great listen!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews