A Gift for Guile
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
She's a liar.
She's a con.
She's a thief.
And God help him, but he'll do anything to keep her safe.
Beautiful and conniving, maddening and brilliant, Esther is everything private detective Samuel Brass shouldn't want. Esther knows she's put herself in terrible danger, but nothing will stop her from making amends—not her family's enemies, not old fears, and certainly not the domineering, interfering, and undeniably handsome former officer of the Scotland Yard. Yet whenever he's near, Samuel makes her long for a life that can never be hers…and wish she were worthy of being saved.
Second in an exciting late Victorian romance series from a RITA Award nominee!
Thief Takers Series:
A Talent for Trickery, Book 1
A Gift for Guile, Book 2
Dangerous Deceit, Coming Soon
"From the first page, Johnson seizes readers' attention… Losing none of her witty dialogue or clever plotting, she pulls readers this way and that as the story swiftly turns from suspense to romance and back again."—RT Book Reviews on A Talent for Trickery
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a witty, quirky, and altogether fun sequel to A Talent for Trickery, Johnson continues to explore the entanglement of the children of William Walker, a criminal turned police informer, with the thief-takers of Victorian-era Scotland Yard. "Curmudgeonly giant" Sir Samuel Brass spots "prickly, unpredictable, infuriating" Esther Walker-Bales waiting alone in Paddington Station, even though she's not supposed to be in London at all. She's wearing a widow's veil and he suspects she's running some kind of scam, but when he confronts her, somehow she talks him into helping her locate her natural father and make overdue amends. Despite Sam's overprotectiveness and Esther's tendency to offer "a bite with the sweet," the two of them have a teasing warmth together and solve their interpersonal problems with sensible discussion as often as with quarrels. Hilarious moments including Samuel worrying that he has developed a foot fetish, a game of badminton in which the players make up the rules as they go, and a half-shot-off beard fill out a story arc that balances light romance, clever sleuthing, slowly building intimacy, and heart-racing suspense. This series is pure pleasure.
Customer Reviews
My heart
If I had wagered against this author creating a sequel that rivaled the first book, I would have lost every penny and gained this exact story. Brava.