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In 18th-century London, Hannah Cole has just lost her husband to what likely was a violent street robbery. She is struggling to keep her sweet shop open, facing the challenges of being a woman running a business on her own and having some inheritance money tied up during the investigation. A famous author who is now serving as a magistrate has taken over the case, and he is leaving no stone unturned. He suspects more is going on with the killing than appears.
Hannah is on her own. But not long after her husband’s funeral, a friend of his turns up at her shop. William Devereux is sympathetic to what she’s going through and tells her he wants to help: on a few counts. One, she is trying to investigate the case herself to get the money freed up and be able to move forward. As a woman of the time, she could use the support of a man, who can do things she can’t. Two, William tells her about a delicious new dessert he’s had that she should try creating for her customers: iced cream. It could make a big difference in her business.
Not too long into this story, some important secrets are revealed that lead the book in a different direction than the reader might have expected from right off the bat. I won’t spoil it here, but suffice it to say, tension is high throughout. The publisher’s synopsis simply says Hannah gets locked into a battle of wits, and that is definitely the core of the book.
The viewpoint switches between Hannah and William, and the handoffs to the other character are timed perfectly to ratchet up the suspense. As the story progressed, I found myself not sure what or who I was rooting for, and I certainly wasn’t sure how it would end.
The Art of a Lie is a clever page-turner that focuses on the power of women at a time when they had little.
The content often feels fairly mild and in accordance with books set in this time: minimal profanity, and sexual mores keeping it fairly clean. But then it switches into chunks where it gets pretty filthy (it uses the c-word 6 or 7 times, for example) and coarse. I am sure that was intentional to make a point about a character, but it was jarring and I personally could have done without it. That took away from my enjoyment and left me unable to recommend entirely to my regular audience who is looking for cleaner content.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 20 uses of strong language, about 15 instances of moderate profanity, about a dozen uses of mild language, 6 instances of the name of Deity in vain, and one or two uses of British profanity. Sexual content includes a few mostly open-door scenes, but they are fairly brief and not really detailed. References to prostitutes and some crude talk and references to sex. Violence includes murder and a couple of descriptions of what happened with some blood and gore, though fairly brief; some other instances of violence, fairly mild.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
