City of Scoundrels

September 23, 2019
Thompson’s fascinating third Counterfeit Lady novel (after 2018’s City of Secrets) plays out against a backdrop of paranoia unleashed by WWI and the devastating onset of the 1918 flu pandemic. Thomas Preston, a soldier about to embark for France, asks New York lawyer Gideon Bates to help him change his will to leave his interest in his family business, Preston Shoes, to his new wife, Rose. When Gideon later hears that Tom has been killed overseas, he calls on Rose, arriving just in time to save her from an attacker, but too late to keep the intruder from stealing the only legal copy of Tom’s revised will. Gideon can do little to prevent Tom’s older brother and his stepmother from inheriting Tom’s entire estate. Fortunately, Gideon’s fiancée, Elizabeth Miles, is the daughter of a con man and a talented grifter herself. To ensure Rose gets her inheritance, Elizabeth, her dad, and a reluctant Gideon execute an elaborate long con that plays on Fred’s unbridled greed. That they unearth a German spy ring in the process adds to the fun. Historical fans will appreciate Thompson’s spot-on depiction of the era. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary.

October 1, 2019
A determined woman seeks justice. Elizabeth Miles had a disreputable past as a grifter, but a chance friendship with Mrs. Bates, a suffragette, introduced her into New York society, and now she's engaged to her friend's son, Gideon Bates, a straight-arrow lawyer. While Gideon is waiting to be called up to serve in the Great War, Cpl. Thomas Preston asks him to draft a new will leaving Thomas' money and his one-third share in Preston Shoe Manufacturing to his pregnant new wife, Rose O'Dell, instead of his older brother, Fred, who currently shares ownership of the company with Thomas and Delia, their young, widowed stepmother. Since Rose is not the sort the Preston family would approve of, Gideon writes the will in secret, naming himself executor, and Thomas leaves it with Rose. All too soon thereafter, an angry Fred Preston barges into Gideon's office saying that his brother is dead and his brother's widow claims to be the heir. Refusing to reveal his client's business, Gideon visits Rose's apartment, where he runs into the bruiser who attempted to strangle her and stole the only signed copy of the will. It's clear that neither Fred nor his stepmother will help Rose, whom Elizabeth moves to her aunt's house, where she and several other progressive women live, knowing that she'll be safe. When neither threats of court cases nor attempts to shame Fred work, Elizabeth turns to her brother and father, the Old Man, and their talented group of con men (City of Secrets, 2018, etc.) to find a way to raise money for Rose and the coming child. Disapproving of war profiteers and men who hurt women, the group comes up with a clever plan that will make Rose rich and pay them something for their efforts. They stumble into the American Protective League, a nest of German spies, and a still more dangerous enemy in the Spanish flu, which will kill vast numbers all over the globe. An amusingly complex con combines with little-known historical details to provide an enchanting read.

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November 1, 2019
Elizabeth Miles returns for a third Counterfeit Lady novel (after City of Secrets/pid, 2018) in a masterfully rendered New York City in the throes of a deadly epidemic in the midst of the Great War, beset by an overabundance of spies, both domestic and foreign. Miles' fianc�, attorney Gideon Bates, still not called up, is nonetheless doing his part by preparing wills for departing soldiers. This brings him into contact with a wealthy young man anxious to provide for his wife, Rose, and their unborn child. When the husband is reported lost and the will stolen, Rose finds herself cut off by his greedy relatives. Elizabeth enlists the aid of her grifter father to get the money anyway through an elaborate con, evoking some of the Joplin tunes that helped make The Sting such a delight. Much of the action plays out behind masks believed to prevent the spread of the flu, which becomes a terrifying threat as it closes in on the engaging cast. Anyone whose family name of Schmidt was changed to Smith at the outbreak of hostilities with Germany will appreciate the fear that radical patriotic groups engendered.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)