City of Secrets
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
An exciting new book in the series featuring woman-on-the-run Elizabeth Miles--from the beloved national bestselling author of the Gaslight Mysteries.
Elizabeth Miles knows that honesty is not always the best policy when it comes to finding justice.
Elizabeth has discovered that navigating the rules of high society is the biggest con of all. She knows she can play the game, but so far, her only success is Priscilla Knight, a dedicated young suffragist recently widowed for the second time. Her beloved first husband died in a tragic accident and left her with two young daughters—and a sizable fortune. While she was lost in grief, Priscilla’s pastor convinced her she needed a man to look after her and engineered a whirlwind courtship and hasty marriage to fellow parishioner Endicott Knight. Now, about nine months later, Endicott is dead in what appears to be another terrible accident.
Everyone is whispering, but that is the least of Priscilla’s troubles. She had believed Endicott was wealthy, too, but her banker tells her she has no money left and her house has been mortgaged. He also hints at a terrible scandal and refuses to help.
Priscilla stands to lose everything, and Elizabeth is determined not to let that happen. But, as always, Elizabeth walks a fine line between using her unusual talents and revealing her own scandalous past. Elizabeth soon discovers that Endicott’s death was anything but accidental, and revealing the truth could threaten much more than Priscilla’s finances. To save her new friend’s future—and possibly her own—Elizabeth, along with her honest-to-a-fault beau, Gideon, delve into the sinister secrets someone would kill to keep.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the period just before women won the right to vote in the U.S., Thompson's solid sequel to 2017's City of Lies pits lovable Elizabeth Miles, a grifter turned suffragist, and her attorney fianc , Gideon Bates, against criminals who have stolen twice-widowed Priscilla Knight's life savings and left the young woman destitute. After Elizabeth befriends Priscilla, a sister suffragist, she realizes that the circumstances surrounding the deaths of both of Priscilla's husbands are suspicious at best. Further investigation reveals that Priscilla's second husband was being manipulated by blackmailers who had photographs of him in a decidedly unusual compromising position with a woman. The mystery turns out to be much more perverse than Elizabeth could've imagined, and the stress begins to wreak havoc on her relationship with Gideon. The everyday sexism that Elizabeth and other female characters have to deal with is a sad testament to how little things have changed in the last century. Thompson successfully combines an intriguing mystery with social commentary.
Customer Reviews
Victoria Thompson’s City of Secrets
Grifting, blackmail, murder, robbing a mother
with two children, prostitution plus more make
for an exciting, well written, well plotted story.
The story is set in the 1920s. Elizabeth Miles
is a con artist who is in the process of reforming
her ways. She is trying to do this due to her
relationship with the uptight, upright lawyer.....
Gideon Bates. Elizabeth is also trying to learn
and live life according to society’s rules of
etiquette.
Elizabeth meets Priscilla Knight, a two time
widow with two young children. Helping Priscilla
by reviewing her husbands finances, Elizabeth
discovers a scam has happened to the widow.
This scam has left her penniless.
After discovering the scam, Elizabeth starts to
investigate. Seems blackmail and murder have
happened by how will Elizabeth help get money
back for the widow. It is necessary for a con artist
to outsmart the murderer and scam artist.
This is a fun, entertaining, interesting and
intriguing read filled with deadly secrets.
Although this is book # 2 of the Counterfeit Lady
Mystery series, it can be read as a stand alone.
The author mixed the past and present together
effortlessly so the characters are easy to get to
know.
I volunteered to read City of Secrets. Thanks to
Penguin’s First-to-Read fit the opportunity. My
opinion is my own.