A review by octygon
City of Secrets by Victoria Thompson
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This is the second book in a series, and the story here picks right up where the first book, City of Lies, ended. The mystery that the characters deal with here is completely new and separate from that they faced in the first book, and I suppose you could read this one without reading the first, but I think you would miss out on a lot of important background about the characters and their relationships. Besides: the previous book is a lot of fun, so go read that first!.
Ok, with that out of the way, let's look at City of Secrets. Elizabeth Miles is a con artist, but because of her relationship with upright lawyer Gideon, she seems to be reforming her ways. She is spending time with Gideon's New York society family, and befriends Priscilla Knight, a widow who is part of their circle of society friends. As she gets to know Priscilla, Elizabeth learns that the other woman's husbands (both of them!) died under strange circumstances, and somehow the widow and her daughters have been left penniless. With her grifter background, Elizabeth is understandably suspicious, but the situation gets even messier and nastier than she feared. Elizabeth wants to use her skills to help Priscilla, but Gideon would prefer to pursue legal avenues.
I really enjoyed the mystery here, and I liked seeing how Elizabeth and Gideon deal with the conflicts in their philosophies. The author does a great job providing historical detail to set the stage for the story, and the characters are very nicely realized. I would have liked to spend more time with Gideon's mother and Elizabeth's father in this book--I like those characters very much!
Ok, with that out of the way, let's look at City of Secrets. Elizabeth Miles is a con artist, but because of her relationship with upright lawyer Gideon, she seems to be reforming her ways. She is spending time with Gideon's New York society family, and befriends Priscilla Knight, a widow who is part of their circle of society friends. As she gets to know Priscilla, Elizabeth learns that the other woman's husbands (both of them!) died under strange circumstances, and somehow the widow and her daughters have been left penniless. With her grifter background, Elizabeth is understandably suspicious, but the situation gets even messier and nastier than she feared. Elizabeth wants to use her skills to help Priscilla, but Gideon would prefer to pursue legal avenues.
I really enjoyed the mystery here, and I liked seeing how Elizabeth and Gideon deal with the conflicts in their philosophies. The author does a great job providing historical detail to set the stage for the story, and the characters are very nicely realized. I would have liked to spend more time with Gideon's mother and Elizabeth's father in this book--I like those characters very much!