A Gift for Guile

Starred review from April 11, 2016
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. Agent: Emmanuelle Morgen, Stonesong Literary.

May 1, 2016
A gentleman investigator in Victorian England finds himself beguiled by a headstrong woman searching for her natural father. Johnson (A Talent for Trickery, 2015, etc) returns with the second installment in her Thief Takers series. The children of the notorious thief Will Walker are thriving, years after his death. But middle child Esther Walker-Bales still has more than a few secrets. The most pressing is that she knows Will was not really her father. She has traveled to London alone from her cottage in Derbyshire to try to track down her true father. Unfortunately, she is discovered by Sir Samuel Brass, one of a trio of gently bred private investigators who helped nab Will Walker and eventually became friends with the Walker siblings. Samuel thinks very little of Esther's plan to search the city's most dangerous neighborhoods on her own. Esther and her siblings have been accosted by Will's associates in the past, and Samuel appoints himself Esther's keeper while she's in the city. Esther's tart personality appeals to Samuel, and she finds that his company is a balm for her habitual loneliness. The pair traipses around London with the reader in tow, making very little progress in their investigations and fending off attacks from mysterious foes. The prose tries painfully to sound British, with too many awkward contractions (saying "I've a keen memory" instead of "I have a keen memory" is one of many examples), and the secondary characters are almost completely colorless. Johnson's demonstrated skill at writing intriguing mystery stories is missing in this novel, although the main characters' complex personal histories make the book a better read than it could have been otherwise. All but the most devoted Johnson fans should skip this novel and wait for her next offering.

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June 1, 2016
As the youngest daughter of William Walker, one of England's most infamous thieves, Esther Walker-Bales always believed crime was in her blood. Now, after discovering that William is not actually her biological father, Esther has come to London to find her birth father and to make amends for her criminal past. Unfortunately, Samuel Brass is going to ruin everything. Known as the Thief Taker Almighty, Samuel is quite familiar with Esther and her family, and he can't believe she's risking everything by coming back to London. At first, Samuel does his best to dissuade Esther from going through with her search, but when that doesn't stop her, Samuel reluctantly switches gears. But just because Samuel agrees to help Esther, that doesn't mean he has agreed to help her put herself in danger. The second installment in Johnson's beguiling Thief Taker series (A Talent for Trickery, 2015) is another superbly written historical romance that will win over readers with its engaging characters and a skillfully constructed plot that deftly mingles equal measures of danger and desire.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)