Amazon.in:Customer reviews: A Talent for Trickery (The Thief-Takers Series Book 1)

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OLT

The Thief and the Thief Taker.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 7 January 2016

Alissa Johnson, IMO, is a quietly dependable historical romance writer. She often flies under the radar of HR readers, because, perhaps, her stories are not splashy, super-sexy or fast-moving. I like her quiet relationship stories and this one, which actually has a bit more action in it than is usual for Johnson, shines more in the H/h romance and in the family dynamics of the h and her two siblings than in any of the moments of "high drama".

Heroine Lottie Walker is the daughter of a now-deceased thief and code-master. The hero Owen Renderwell, now a private investigator, had been a Scotland Yard detective some 8 years ago and had exposed the father's criminal activities and forced him to cooperate with the Yard in criminal investigations. During this collaboration, things went wrong and the father was killed.

Now, many years later, Lottie resents Owen, blaming him for how her father was treated and for how things ended. She and her young adult sister Esther and adolescent brother Peter have moved on to a "respectable" life using the last name Bales and moving out of London to a new home, hoping to avoid any notoriety and any revenge by criminals the father may have crossed or double-crossed in his criminal dealings.

Owen comes back into their lives, needing Lottie's help to catch a murderer who is leaving coded messages. Since Lottie was familiar with her father's coding systems, he is hoping she will be able to decipher these messages. And there's the matter of the father's journals, some of which had been handed over to Scotland Yard years ago, but he suspects that there are more still in Lottie's possession. And it seems that perhaps Owen has been followed by some criminal or criminals who seem to want to do harm to the Walker-Bales siblings.

Add to that some complicated relationships. There's the romantic one between Lottie and Owen. Eight years ago she was attracted to him but now is left with deep resentment after the death of her father. They need to clear up all misunderstandings from the past. And the family dynamics are a bit messed up. Both sisters have a few secrets from each other and, in addition, both have been very careful to keep Peter, who was only 4 when his father died, ignorant of their past life. Turns out that may not have been such a good thing.

That's the best part of this novel. Getting all the relationships in order. Getting all the secrets out in the open and promoting real communication with each other. I found the romance to be very satisfying and also enjoyed seeing the siblings straighten out their family relationships, which had been messed up by their charming, charismatic con man of a father.

Esther's story is the next one up in the series. She's a real firecracker. I'm hoping her book delivers on this.

6 people found this helpful

Judge Tabor

Interesting Family and Three Heart-Throb Thief Takers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 29 May 2017

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I've read all the books in this series and have truly enjoyed them. I'll keep this review short and sweet and hold most of my comments for Book #3 in this series. This book lays the foundation for the Thief-Takers, a group of detectives which includes Lord Owen Renderwell, Sir Samuel Brass and Sir Gabriel Arkwright. Each man has his own type of expertise, but all are highly professional and accustomed to getting results.

However, their true claim to fame has come at a cost to the Walker family, whose criminal father, Will Walker, once assisted Lord Renderwell and his team when Renderwell was working for Scotland Yard in rescuing a kidnapped duchess. Will Walker was killed while helping the duchess to escape resulting in his children, Lottie, Esther and Peter being estranged from Renderwell and his associates for 8 years.

The Thief-Takers now have their own private detective agency and they've descended in full force on the Walkers in order to attempt to find some answers in the coded books and notes Will Walker kept detailing every job he had ever worked - successes and failures. Problem is, Lottie isn't eager to help Lord Renderwell because she feels as though the Thief-Takers took all the claim to fame in the rescue of the duchess and never gave her father his due in what Lottie saw as his transformation from a thief to a rescuer of the duchess.

So, there are things to work out. It's obvious from the beginning Renderwell has a "thing" for Lottie, but will Lottie give him a chance? She's rejected every form of communication he's attempted. Lottie, who is a code breaker extraordinaire decides to work with Renderwell to find what he's looking for which gives them lots and lots of time together. In fact, I've come to realize after reading the three books in this series, this author appears to have a writing style which allows the heroes and heroines to have pretty much 75% of the storyline dedicated to the rehashing of their backgrounds and their growing relationship. This will be satisfying to those of us who find ourselves becoming frustrated when an author decides to keep the primary characters apart for much of the story. Believe me, the opposite is true of this author.

Not your every day HR - something different for the palate.

4 people found this helpful

Karwyn

Romance and Danger

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 16 June 2016

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3.75 Stars
The honest Bale family is living a lie. The lie they have been living has kept them safe for eight years, but now the house of cards that their life has been built on is being blown away by the gust of deceit from the past.
The book takes place in late Victorian England as a family the Bale's live a quiet life in the country. Life is calm and non complicated until private investigators bring the families past misdeeds into the present.
This is a light and fun read, with a smattering of danger. The characters were likable but at the same time I felt disconnected from them. The author didn't let me care about the secondary characters as their was so little interaction between them, and resulted with just a few quips and barbs amongst the detectives. I feel I was missing out on the dynamics of their relationships. I still have questions as to why they became private detectives.
The author does have a wonderfully developed backstory for the dangerous part, but I figured it out very quickly, which left the danger element for me lacking luster.
I closing this was a fun read and it established depth of characters in the memories of those same characters; but in the present plot the characters lacked that same depth.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Great characters, good start to the series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 July 2017

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I really liked this book. Believable characters, and enjoyable dialogue. It's refreshing to read a "regency romance" which doesn't spend any time in ball rooms or with the ton, or in London. Also really liked that the heroine was over 30, and quite independent.

The Evills

delightful, well-crafted mystery/romance

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 7 February 2017

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Eight years ago, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Owen Renderwell's personal codebreaker and thief-turned-informant, William Walker, died, leaving behind three children. With the Crown's help, Renderwell sent the Walker children to Boston - if by Boston you mean "relocated and renamed inside England." He's watched them from afar, but after Walker's eldest daughter Charlotte continually returned his letters, Renderwell was convinced he'd never see them again.

Until a series of robberies culminated in a murder, and each crime scene had a note in code - the kind of code he'd only seen Walker use.

With nowhere left to go, Renderwell and his associates, now private detectives for the well off, show up on Charlotte's front door and ask for help. To their surprise - she says yes. Several days later, this surprise turns to relief when a thief comes to Charlotte Walker, now Bales', home... and seems to be there for more than the candlesticks.

A solid mystery ensues, built around the history and the misunderstandings between Owen and Charlotte, Charlotte and her siblings, and in one case, a sibling and the world. Each person has a slightly different memory of who William Walker was, and it's in reconciling those memories that Charlotte and Owen finally find the truth - all of it, and regardless of the consequences.

5 people found this helpful

Rachel by the sea

Finally, an especially intelligent, well written romantic mystery.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 25 December 2017

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In truth, this isn't an ordinary mystery because no one is murdered right at the start of the book. Rather this is a story about the many mysteries surrounding the children of a deceased father who was a renowned London thief. The main female character, Lottie, has been head of the family since the father died ( he was doing something heroic for a change). Lottie is in a love-hate relationship with a private investigator, who is also a viscount, and who knows her and her family well. The mystery aspect focuses on a diamond heist, devised by the father, which happened many years before. The rest of the story details how their criminal past has returned to haunt Lottie's family. The author provides a wonderful, very smart, well-written plot showcasing her cast of complicated characters as they strive to understand the past and discover what the father thief tried to tell them in his encrypted journals and messages. The story moves at a fairly good pace, but their is very little overt violence or pointless action. The intrigue is advanced with descriptions of the characters' deductions and thinking, mixed well with passion and witty, smart dialogue.

3 people found this helpful

Mary W. Matthews

Not your run-of-the-mill historical romance

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 14 May 2019

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I suspect this was Alissa Johnson's first novel, because not *every* character was richly drawn and fully realized -- just most of them. And the plot was more plausible than many of the AJ novels I've read, and the denouement more satisfying .

This book was highly enjoyable, like every AJ novel I've read --although I forgot, halfway through, that it isn't a Regency, and kept wondering why they referred to Queen Charlotte (of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) Hanover instead of her son the Prince Regent. And the obligatory deflowering scene was written from the heroine's point of view, which was a nice change.

If you're looking for a historical romance that isn't the usual round of ball gowns and morning callers, staggeringly beautiful heroines and Corinthian Ken dolls, this book is for you.

E. Homar

An Evening Well Spent

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 13 April 2018

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I was looking for a fun book to pass a cold and rainy evening. This book checked a lot of boxes for me, and it didn't disappoint in the execution.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters. The hero was a competent, smart, but not invincible white knight. The heroine had a hard upbringing with a criminal father involving his children in his schemes. She's come a long way, but trust doesn't come easily for her.

The author paints realistic family relationships for the heroine, and that adds a lot to the book. I also loved that the heroine and her sister behaved like real sisters. Arguing, trying to protect each other, and NEVER fighting over the hero.

The romantic plot was solid, and they mystery seemed plausible.

All in, well worth the read.

jhl

Unengaging

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 7 January 2016

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This book is well written, and the plot is unusual for a historical romance, but there's so little action that I found it quite difficult to stick with it. The story takes place in a country home, and the characters are trapped there by someone attacking them, so there's no physical action, aside from the occasional threatening gunshot, until the very end. The heart of the plot has the characters trying to figure out what the attacker wants, which ought to be intellectually engaging, but we have so little to go on that there's no way for readers to actively participate in unraveling the puzzle. Beyond that, the H & h have known each other for years, so readers don't share any discoveries about their relationship. And it's angsty, which probably entertains lots of people, but isn't my cup of tea (since I have plenty of angst IRL); if it were more humorous I might not have been so bored, but as it was, I never fully got into it.

7 people found this helpful

Irishbooklady

I liked it a lot. Maybe you will, too.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 9 December 2015

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This book has a literary "meatiness" to it. If you are expecting a fluffy romance, you will be disappointed. There's plenty of witty banter, flirtation and back-of-the-burner slow-cookin' sexiness, but there's a lot more going on than just that. This is historical mystery with romance rather than historical romance with a mystery on the side as an excuse to be published. I liked it. There are surprises, suspense, crafted characters that are very real in their imperfections, and plausible events that could very well have happened. Seems the author has matured and honed her skills. This is an enjoyable, engrossing and satisfying book to read. Looking forward to book #2 in this series.

9 people found this helpful

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