Series: Victorian Bookshop Mystery, #1
Publisher: Berkley
Released: December 3, 2013
Source: Borrowed from the Library

Georgia Fenchurch appears to be an unassuming antiquarian bookseller in Victorian London, but the life she leads is as exciting as any adventure novel. For Georgia is a member of the Archivist Society, a secret association of private investigators led by the mysterious Sir Broderick.

When a frantic woman comes to Georgia claiming that her neighbor, Nicholas Drake, has been abducted by the notorious Duke of Blackford, Georgia and the Archivist Society agree to take the case. But Drake is no innocent—he is a thief who has been blackmailing many of the leading members of London society. To find Drake and discover who is behind his abduction, Georgia and her beautiful assistant, Emma, will have to leave the cozy confines of their bookshop and infiltrate the inner circles of the upper crust—with the help of the dashing but dubious Duke of Blackford himself.

But the missing thief and his abductor are not the only ones to elude Georgia Fenchurch. When she spies the man who killed her parents years ago, she vows to bring him to justice once and for all…at any cost.

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I have mixed feelings about THE VANISHING THIEF. The Victorian setting and main character were the highlights of the story. Bookish Georgia Fenchurch was a delightful heroine, and I was a bit envious of her bookshop. The budding romance between Georgia and the brooding Duke of Blackford was fun to read about. They’re both in denial at this point, but there’s some unmistakable romantic tension between them.

They missing man mystery itself was kind of chaotic. There were a slew of characters in the story – too many for me to keep track of. The duke of this, the duke of that, wives of, sisters of, children of, etc. and everyone had a back story/story line to keep track of. I would have liked a tighter plot with less characters to juggle. I did enjoy the secondary mystery though. Georgia’s parents were murdered a decade earlier, and she’s renewing her efforts to find the killer. Their murder had something to do with a missing rare book, but she’s still piecing together the details. I’ll probably pick up the second book to see how it plays out.

Rating: 3 Stars