The Sacred Art of Stealing

A robbery in Scotland might not seem like an unusual background for a crime novel—until it’s put into the hands of one of the U.K.’s leading satirists, Christopher Brookmyre. Now available for the first time in the U.S., The Sacred Art of Stealing is narrative catnip for fans of crime fiction laced with dark humor.

This is how the story goes: Their eyes met across a crowded room. She was just a poor servant girl and he was the son of a rich industrialist . . . Well, the eyes meeting across...