Friends in High Places by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick Keswick is enjoying her life in France with her husband.  But an old foe is back at Ballantine and Company, threatening to expose Kick's old life.  While her husband is away on assignment, Kick goes back to London to set right some of the consequences of her old thieving ways.

I was apparently in the mood for heist stories because I followed Uncommon Criminals with Friend in High Places.  Two very different protagonists, however.  Kick is a reformed thief but still the very best at it.  And she loves the good life, fancy parties, luxurious meals, and beautiful jewels.  When it comes out that somethings are not on the up and up at Ballantine and Company,  Kick feels compelled to help out.  And Kick is very clever so she manages to help out her old company, make some new friends, and help out some nuns.  And she does it with a lot of style.  I love reading about her adventures and the clothes and the food, but I am getting a little tired of reading the same thing about her background.  It's redundant.  But still these are good books, worth reading especially if you like a good heist story.

Priceless (Kick Keswick #2) by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick Keswick is enjoying her retirement both from the auction house she previously worked in and from her life as the Shamrock Burglar, the world's best jewelry thief.  But when an impostor Shamrock Burglar begins to steal from wealthy ladies, Kick returns to the glamorous world of the rich and famous to clear her reputation.

She didn't know it, but time was up and she was out of the running.  She'd picked the wrong brand name to plagiarize and she wasn't ready for the big leagues anyway.  p.244

Another fun adventure with Kick Keswick!  This time she travel to Italy to find the impostor Shamrock Burglar and she does it with style, class, and a whole lot of jewels.  It's fun watching Kick work and how smooth she really is, despite the fact that she is often smug.  But the decadent life that she lives might make anyone smug, especially considering she is a great jewel thief .  She is an expert at manipulating situations and figuring out people.  The only thing is that I never feel like she is in any danger.  Of course, she is going to come through the whole thing ok, she is Kick Keswick, after all!

Hogwarts: Hide and Seek mini-challenge

Brilliant (Kick Keswick #1) by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick works as an executive assistant at an upscale auction house, but she is also a highly skilled jewel thief called the Shamrock Burglar.  When a new owner buys the auction house, Kick falls for his charming ways and begins to contemplate a new life.  But all is not on the up and up as she soon discovers.

I would become like Doris Day.  I made a solemn pledge that as soon as I got out of the reformatory, I'd work smarter.
Incredibly, it never occurred to me to reform.  p.16

I accidentally read the third Kick Keswick book first so I wanted to go back to the beginning.  The interesting thing about this book is that Kick is at the end of her career and most of her heists are glossed over.  There is one featured in this book though and I like seeing Kick in action. I like Kick and don't mind spending the time with her, but I wanted to shake her and make her open her eyes to Own, her new boss, and his obvious charm and obvious motivate.

I found that the plot moved a bit too slowly and I was waiting for the shoe to drop the whole time.  It certainly is not action packed, but it moves at a methodical pace and eventually we get the pay off.  But I enjoyed it and I will be reading the rest of the series.  This is not really a mystery per se, but it is still a fun and delicious crime book.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
350 Page
ABC

Perfect (Kick Keswick Mysteries #3) by Marne Davis Kellogg

Kick Keswick is the world's best jewel thief.  But she is retired.  That is until the Queen's jewels are stolen and Kick is recruited to steal them back.  Kick enters the world of the beyond wealthy to find the thief and get back the jewels and it will take all her wits and skill to do just that.

If I were going to commit to using my highly developed skills and signature techniques, I wouldn't dream of putting myself in jeopardy or making myself vulnerable to capture by letting him, or anyone, seeing into my secret world. My secret world of Swiss bank vaults packed with stones and currency and identities.  I could vanish in seconds.
In fact, I just had.  p.31

I love heist stories.  And this one is an inverted heist story because Kick is a thief stealing from a thief at the behest of Scotland Yard.  Kick is very good at what she does and she knows a lot about jewels and jewelry and all the finest things in life.  I liked her and her descriptions of all these things.  And food.  OMG the food in this book is described in such detail.  I went around hungry the entire time I read it.

It turns out, though, that this is third in the series.  It wasn't a problem, prior knowledge isn't really necessary to read this one.  There is some summing up of past adventures but it's not blow-by-blow or anything.  But now I want to start at the beginning and read some of her adventures when she was an actual jewel thief and not just "coming out of retirement" for this caper.  Because Kick is very clever and really knows her stuff.  The plan is so simple yet so elaborate and I loved reading how it played out.  This is definitely a fun series if you like mysteries or heists or food or all of the above.

Hogwarts: Perfect Mini-challenge