Gabriella grew up on the streets, learning to be a pickpocket with a deft hand; that is, until she got caught and taken to an orphanage. That was her saving grace. She learned to read, write, and sew. Now she lives in a boarding house, works for a dressmaker, and has left her street-wise life behind. UNTIL, her friend is arrested for stealing the jewels of a Four Hundred family. In an effort to get her friend out of jail, she crashes a masquerade ball and during a commotion, she breaks into the family safe to see if the jewels are there. While she is cracking the safe, her old partner, Nicholas breaks into the very room where she's cracking the safe with the same goal in mind--to find the jewels that had been stolen and get them returned to the owner while proving that Gabriella's friend didn't steal them.
That particular mystery is solved fairly early in the book, but others come to take its place and all the girls at the Bleeker Street boarding house become "Agents of Inquiry," helping other women in town who have no other place to turn.
Jen Turano is known for her wit and humor in her writing. It takes some significant skill to write comedy without it becoming cartoonish. Jen has walked on the edge of this line with this book. Still, it is very enjoyable, because I could see myself in several of the characters within the book. Several of the characters develop feelings for each other throughout the book while Gabriella's and Nicholas' story takes center stage. I am hoping that Daphne's story will be the next book in this series. She is the character who intrigued me the most.
Four solid stars.
Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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