Sir Bertrand Thorndike is ready to lead his own investigative team. Even if that means working with Philippa Cashel.
Philippa knows Sir Bertrand as a drunk and a rake– as does the rest of society. After years spent as one of society’s prominent courtesans, she’s determined not to let any man control her. Every bit of her life is to be dedicated to starting up a school where underprivileged women.
But a sinister plot involving a theft at the Prince Regent’s estate collides their paths, and they will have to put their wits together to solve the mystery.
⭐⭐⭐ (3/5 stars)
I was intrigued by this book. Erica Vetsch is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine, and if you put the word “thieving”, “thief”, or “theft” in a title… I’m sold. Heist stories are favorites of mine, and I was so excited to give this one a try, especially since… it’s about BERTIE!!!
Seeing Bertie from the Thorndike and Swann series made me so happy… I just really loved him having his own book, and I can’t wait to hear more of his story in the books to come. I just think he’s an amazing character, and it was so much fun to see him going on his own adventure… but still getting to see our characters from the original series.
Our main girl was very unique. Her backstory was harder than most of the characters in Christian historical fiction, but I do feel like it was handled well, and I really liked seeing her gradual faith development, and they way her character processed the events. While there were certain things she would do that annoyed me, I still liked her overall.
The romance for this book was surprisingly light– I was expecting to see our two main characters make a lot more progress romantically, but, now, I realize this whole series is going to be a slow-burn romance, which I appreciate a lot. I’m excited to continue on and see where these characters go as a team.
(And, let me go off on a small fangirling rabbit trail here, because… JULIETTE AND DANIEL!!! I have no words, because they are the absolute best, and it was such a thrill to see them again.)
The content for this book was far more… difficult than I had thought going into this. Our main girl being a former courtesan definitely added more adult and mature themes to this story, though nothing was really super described or detailed. Also, there is an attempted sexual assault on a girl who is eleven years old, which I just really felt crossed some lines. Nothing actually happens, but we very clearly see where things are going, and later we learn that she was forced to seek that out to survive, if that makes sense. Also, the death of a young woman was hard to read about, and just a lot of talk about trying to help girls who are in bad situations, and the reality of that. I know it’s history, but I just want to be very transparent about this for anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable reading that.
This book is published by Kregel Publishing, and is connected to the Thorndike and Swann mystery series (starting with The Debutante’s Code, which I would highly recommend). I would definitely recommend giving this book a try for any adult readers looking for a historical mystery with a lot of faith content.
EMOJI REVIEW!
- 🔎 mystery and detectives
- 💔 hard topics
- 🕰️ historical setting
- 🥹 seeing favorite characters again
- 🏚️ fixing up an old estate
Thanks so much for reading this review! I hope it helped you decide if this book is a good fit for you.
keira anne with an e 
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