City of Shadows
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
In this all-new Counterfeit Lady Novel from USA Today bestselling author Victoria Thompson, newlywed Elizabeth Miles must use her unlawful skills to expose a dangerous charlatan.
Elizabeth Miles Bates has returned from her honeymoon with Gideon and is taking great pride in having completely forsaken her disreputable past. Then her friend Anna Vanderslice begs her to use her talents to save her widowed mother from an unscrupulous medium. Since the war and the flu epidemic left so many families in mourning, séances have come back into vogue as desperate families long to communicate with their loved ones.
Anna's mother has been attending séances in hopes of connecting with her son, David, who died of influenza. Anna had thought it a heartbreaking but harmless activity, but she's just learned that Mrs. Vanderslice is paying the medium ever-increasing sums of money in her eagerness to make contact. Since David's death has already caused Anna and her mother financial hardship, Mrs. Vanderslice's obsession is in danger of ruining them.
Madame Ophelia is working with a group of con artists to fleece as many grieving New Yorkers as possible before moving on to another city. Several of Mrs. Vanderslice's friends, as well as some of Gideon's clients, have already been victims. Elizabeth knows that simply exposing the medium as a fraud will not be enough to recoup the stolen money; the only way is to con the medium and her cohorts. But will Elizabeth's family help her when it means betraying other con artists? Elizabeth recruits Gideon, her aunt Cybil, and her partner, Zelda, to lend a hand. Can Elizabeth and her gang of amateurs fool the professionals? Or will speaking to the dead lead to deadly consequences?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
