City of Schemes is the latest addition to Victoria Thompson’s Counterfeit Lady series, a delightful dance between the seedy and splendid sides of post-World War I American life. Elizabeth Miles is a mostly-reformed con artist, trained from childhood by her father (the Old Man). Luckily for the reader, Elizabeth dusts off her considerable skills when the occasion calls for it—sort of like Samantha Stevens reluctantly using her magic powers in a pinch on Bewitched.
Elizabeth has a big heart and a clever mind, and she’s cherished by the adorably honest lawyer Gideon Bates, regardless of her past and present foibles. It’s fun to see her assure him that he can go about his upstanding life (“You don’t need to concern yourself about any of this”) as she strategizes to achieve a kind of justice that feels right, even if it veers away from strict legality. The winners and losers in these plots invite us to ponder the grey areas of right and wrong.
City of Schemes opens with the engaging observation that “planning a wedding was very much like planning a con” where “the bride was the mark, and everyone was trying to convince her to give them her money for some ridiculous thing that sounded like the opportunity of a lifetime .” The reader feels like Elizabeth’s savvy partner in crime as we learn about classic cons (in this case, it’s the Spanish Prisoner). She turns the tables on the greedy while acting as a champion for true love. Unlike a standard whodunit, here we eagerly turn the pages to learn how Elizabeth manages to pull off her latest impossible mission. Best of all, we have the chance to devour four novels in the series so far, with the hope of more to come.