I had a bad couple of days in terms of migraines this past week, when I didn't feel well enough to do anything while medicated but also desperately needed to keep my brain happy and calm and engaged. This book was exactly what I needed, and I was very grateful to it.
This story and setup feature the kind of characters who in my opinion Charles does best: people who are fundamentally good but have a moral ambiguity to them, whether because of their occupation or general motives of behavior. Given that one of the main characters is a jewel thief and the other is the man who hires him to rob his father and stepfather at a celebration of their marriage anniversary, moral ambiguity may seem too positive a view of them. But her scoundrels manage to be both law-breakers and extremely sympathetic.
In this particular situation, Alec Pyne has hired two jewel thieves to steal the most closely guarded necklace in the country outside of the crown jewels--namely, the one his father the Duke of Ilvar is about to give to his wife at their twentieth anniversary party. There is a slow, drawn out reveal of exactly why Alec would want to do this, with him confessing his family's past to Jerry Crozier, one of the thieves, as Jerry instructs him in how to deceive his family to achieve his goal. Naturally, one of the methods of his teaching is in sexual rewards, which is so compellingly written it makes the entire story work, in my opinion.
I truly did not know how they were going to succeed in the robbery, or what Jerry's grand plan or any of that was until it happened. Part of that is due to a sleight of hand in how the tale is written, and what is omitted to the reader; I didn't have a problem with how it was constructed, but I can see why it might not work as well for everyone. I was expecting a twist of some kind, and I was reasonably satisfied with the one we got. And the ending was just about everything I'm ever looking for at the end of a good heist story.
This isn't a direct sequel to any of her other books, but a couple of characters from a previous trilogy make appearances, which I enjoyed more than I expected to. All in all, I really liked both the main couple and the overall setup of this book a lot.
Grade: A
This story and setup feature the kind of characters who in my opinion Charles does best: people who are fundamentally good but have a moral ambiguity to them, whether because of their occupation or general motives of behavior. Given that one of the main characters is a jewel thief and the other is the man who hires him to rob his father and stepfather at a celebration of their marriage anniversary, moral ambiguity may seem too positive a view of them. But her scoundrels manage to be both law-breakers and extremely sympathetic.
In this particular situation, Alec Pyne has hired two jewel thieves to steal the most closely guarded necklace in the country outside of the crown jewels--namely, the one his father the Duke of Ilvar is about to give to his wife at their twentieth anniversary party. There is a slow, drawn out reveal of exactly why Alec would want to do this, with him confessing his family's past to Jerry Crozier, one of the thieves, as Jerry instructs him in how to deceive his family to achieve his goal. Naturally, one of the methods of his teaching is in sexual rewards, which is so compellingly written it makes the entire story work, in my opinion.
I truly did not know how they were going to succeed in the robbery, or what Jerry's grand plan or any of that was until it happened. Part of that is due to a sleight of hand in how the tale is written, and what is omitted to the reader; I didn't have a problem with how it was constructed, but I can see why it might not work as well for everyone. I was expecting a twist of some kind, and I was reasonably satisfied with the one we got. And the ending was just about everything I'm ever looking for at the end of a good heist story.
This isn't a direct sequel to any of her other books, but a couple of characters from a previous trilogy make appearances, which I enjoyed more than I expected to. All in all, I really liked both the main couple and the overall setup of this book a lot.
Grade: A
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