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A Gift for Guile

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A Gift for Guile

Paperback(Mass Market Paperback)

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Paperback(Mass Market Paperback)
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Overview

She's a liar.

She's a con.

She's a thief.

And God help him, but he'll do anything to keep her safe.

Beautiful and conniving, maddening and brilliant, Esther is everything private detective Samuel Brass shouldn't want. Esther knows she's put herself in terrible danger, but nothing will stop her from making amends—not her family's enemies, not old fears, and certainly not the domineering, interfering, and undeniably handsome former officer of the Scotland Yard. Yet whenever he's near, Samuel makes her long for a life that can never be hers…and wish she were worthy of being saved.

Second in an exciting late Victorian romance series from a RITA Award nominee!

Thief Takers Series:

A Talent for Trickery, Book 1

A Gift for Guile, Book 2

Dangerous Deceit, Coming Soon

"From the first page, Johnson seizes readers' attention… Losing none of her witty dialogue or clever plotting, she pulls readers this way and that as the story swiftly turns from suspense to romance and back again."—RT Book Reviews on A Talent for Trickery

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492620532
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Series:	The Thief-takers , #2
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,065,361
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Alissa Johnson is a RITA nominated author of historical romance. She grew up on Air Force bases, and attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She currently resides in the Arkansan Ozarks where she spends her free time keeping her Aussie dog busy, visiting with family, and dabbling in archery.

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

★ 04/11/2016
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. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"In a witty, quirky, and altogether fun sequel to A Talent for Trickery, Johnson...balances light romance, clever sleuthing, slowly building intimacy, and heart-racing suspense. This series is pure pleasure." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

"Johnson draws readers into an intriguing mystery romance as disparate characters join forces to combat the demons of their pasts. The quick pace, sexual tension, touch of poignancy and the well-drawn backdrop seamlessly merge, allowing her characters and their conflict to take center stage." — RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars

"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." — Booklist

"A Gift for Guile is an engaging romance that makes for a quick and enjoyable read." — Historical Novel Review

From the Publisher

2016-04-13
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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Overview

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