CITY OF SHADOWS

One group of con artists vies with another in an epic battle.

Now that she’s married socialite lawyer Gideon Bates, Elizabeth Miles has taken an elevated place in New York’s post–World War I society. Her former life as a grifter is a closely held family secret. But sometimes she uses her skills, and those of others in her father’s network, for a good cause. When a dear friend in straitened circumstances reveals that her mother has been spending money they can’t afford on thrice weekly visits to the medium Madame Ophelia, Elizabeth, musing that conning another con artist might be fun, enlists her brother, Jake, and her father in a plan to expose the medium and recover at least some of the money she and her confederates have collected through their nefarious schemes. Since Ophelia’s clients naturally refuse to believe that she’s a fake, Elizabeth goes to a seance to size things up and then hatches a plot to convince Ophelia that she really has the gift of second sight by revealing supposedly confidential information in a supposed trance. Gideon has a client in thrall to the medium, who wants to withdraw a large sum of money to follow a tip from a stranger. So Elizabeth knows that Ophelia’s not working alone. Elizabeth and her helpers must be very clever and careful if they’re to achieve their ends.

A highly amusing look at the world of the big con.