A Gift for Guile

A Gift for Guile (2016) Alissa Johnson

Set in London in 1872

This is the second book in the Thief-Takers series, and follows the second sister, Esther, and the private investigator, Samuel Brass.

Esther has sneaked into London, and is caught at underground by the Samuel Brass, who ruins the meeting she was getting ready to have.

Samuel Brass sees it as his personal mission to keep Esther safe, because, he tells himself, she is the sister of the wife of one of his best friends.

“Anyone who goes into places like Spitalfields when they have a choice otherwise is an idiot.”

“That is unfair. There are decent, honest, hardworking people who live there.”

“A great many. But their combined innocence does not render the cutthroats less vicious.

One of the things I particularly like about this story is how sensible Esther is, and how it always takes Samuel (and the reader, to be honest) aback when she is reasonable and sensible.

She set the book aside and frowned at him thoughtfully. “Out of curiosity, why haven’t you stationed guards outside my door?”

“Do you think you need them?” She shook her head.

“Do you?” It wasn’t so much that she needed them as that he wanted them for his own peace of mind.

She shrugged when he didn’t immediately answer. “I wouldn’t make a fuss over it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“If it would make you feel… I don’t know”— she began to wave one hand around as she searched for the right words—“ like a properly responsible gentleman, seeing to the safety of the helpless lady”— she waved her hand some more—“ or what have you, then, by all means, hire a guard or two.”

But that’s not the only reason I like Esther. I like her because she has struggled in the past, but is slowly becoming, as she puts it, more.

No one person’s good opinion should mean so much that another person should feel compelled to change who they are to obtain it.”

She ignored the voice, long since accustomed to the fear that she wasn’t really wanted, wasn’t quite good enough for anyone. That fear had been at the heart of her determination to work with her father and her terrible need to seek out the approval of others. She’d been so desperate to prove the nasty little voice wrong.

But, it’s also a fun little romp.

Samuel and Esther stepped closer to investigate the admittedly rather large, but definitely very dead, rodent.

Samuel glanced over his shoulder. “You screamed because of a dead rat?” The girl was a Londoner. This couldn’t possibly be the first one she’d come across.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I stepped on it a bit. In me bare feet.”

Next to him, Esther gave a little shudder. “Ew.”

“Aye, mum.”

These are just fun stories, even if they do have boinking.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca

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