City of Shadows

October 4, 2021
Set in post-WWI New York City, Thompson’s subpar fifth Counterfeit Lady mystery featuring grifter turned suffragist Elizabeth Miles (after City of Schemes) pits newly married Elizabeth, now Mrs. Gideon Bates, against a savvy crook. The crook, posing as Madame Ophelia, a psychic medium, is bankrupting emotionally vulnerable targets, some of whose loved ones died in the war or during the flu epidemic, including the mother of Elizabeth’s best friend, Anna Vanderslice. Mrs. Vanderslice is eager to contact her son, David, who died of the flu. Elizabeth comes up with a risky plan to save Mrs. Vanderslice from Madame Ophelia and her crew of scam artists. Enlisting her brother, Jake, and her aunt Cybil to help, Elizabeth attempts an audacious con. The intriguing and inspiring Elizabeth makes up only in part for the lack of mystery and a predictable plot that builds to an anticlimactic conclusion. Furthermore, there’s little focus on the development of major characters, which lessens this installment’s interest and impact. Hopefully, Thompson will return to form next time. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary.

October 1, 2021
One group of con artists vies with another in an epic battle. Now that she's married socialite lawyer Gideon Bates, Elizabeth Miles has taken an elevated place in New York's post-World War I society. Her former life as a grifter is a closely held family secret. But sometimes she uses her skills, and those of others in her father's network, for a good cause. When a dear friend in straitened circumstances reveals that her mother has been spending money they can't afford on thrice weekly visits to the medium Madame Ophelia, Elizabeth, musing that conning another con artist might be fun, enlists her brother, Jake, and her father in a plan to expose the medium and recover at least some of the money she and her confederates have collected through their nefarious schemes. Since Ophelia's clients naturally refuse to believe that she's a fake, Elizabeth goes to a seance to size things up and then hatches a plot to convince Ophelia that she really has the gift of second sight by revealing supposedly confidential information in a supposed trance. Gideon has a client in thrall to the medium, who wants to withdraw a large sum of money to follow a tip from a stranger. So Elizabeth knows that Ophelia's not working alone. Elizabeth and her helpers must be very clever and careful if they're to achieve their ends. A highly amusing look at the world of the big con.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.