An Artful Dodge — Karen Odden

She's stolen gems, purses, and hearts -- but can she steal her life back from the thieving ring that's claimed it?

Victorian London comes to vivid life in this riveting heist novel about an all-female thieving gang and one young woman's heroic plan to escape a life of crime.

London, 1878: twenty-year-old Kit Jimeson has fingers so nimble she can nick a necklace off a neck in a crowded theater without raising alarm. Kit and her dodge partner, Mary, are the highest earners in the notorious all-women thieving ring in Elephant and Castle, south of the Thames.

Kit, whose mother had been a thief before her, longs for a different life where she's not constantly on the lookout for constables and plainclothes detectives. One mistake, even pure bad luck might land her in the headsman's noose. She has been saving up her earnings so her younger sister, a maid for a wealthy Mayfair family, might have a shot at respectability.

Kit is very close to leaving the life entirely when Maggie O'Connell brings her plans to a halt. A legendary former thief, beautiful, charismatic Maggie has come back to town to reclaim leadership of the ring after twenty years in a brutal Australian penal colony. But Maggie desires more than mere wealth or power: she longs for revenge against those who sent her away. Kit, with her quick mind and dangerously clever hands, is Maggie's best weapon in her vendetta. If she wants to walk away with her life, Kit must carry out a heist that will demand every skill she possesses.