Lord Alexander Pyne-ffoulkes bears a well deserved grudge against his father, Duke Ilvar, and has a plan to make him pay. It involves getting a pair of thieves into his father’s remote, isolated estate in order to rob his stepmother of her jewel collection. Which also means, Alec will have to convince society that he and Jerry Crozier are the best of friends. It doesn’t take long for things to get out of hand, and Alec and Jerry find themselves having to keep up an act amidst betrayals, misadventure, and the growing realization that it might be less of an act than Alec believes.
The concept of the story was great, and I was invested in finding out what happened in the past that made Alec so bent on revenge. The dynamic between Alec and Jerry also worked well. Though I wish we’d gotten more of Jerry’s point of view as well. I think that would have helped give a fuller picture of a number of characters. It was a lot harder to get attached to some of them because we only have Alec’s point of view to go on. But over all, the story worked for the most part. Unfortunately, I’m on the fence about this story. For the most part it was engaging and I read it in almost one sitting, but the plot twist towards the end didn’t work for me, and I didn’t actually find the end of the story satisfying. I don’t regret reading it, but I probably won’t read the rest of the books in the series. Three out of five stars.
Bingo – Black