Review: City of Promises

I've been a fan of Victoria Thompson books for a very long time. I had finished reading (or re-reading) all of Agatha Christie's novels and I remember being thrilled to find out there were more than twenty books in the Gaslight Mystery series. As I worked my way through those, I also started on her second series called Counterfeit Lady. When City of Promises, a new book in that series, was released, I was surprised that it had a co-author who turned out to be Victoria's daughter. I had missed that Victoria Thompson passed away in 2024 after battling cancer for many years. In the afterword, Ellen Thompson reveals that the book was about 50% completed when she took over from her mother.

Although this is a Counterfeit Lady book featuring former con artist Elizabeth Miles Bates, the authors bring in characters from the Gaslight Mystery series for a literary mash-up. The book starts with former midwife Sarah and former police office (now private detective) Frank Malloy having a meeting with attorney Gideon Miles about their daughter Catherine. Because of the time difference between the two series, the Gaslight characters are now about twenty years old so Catherine is now a successful actress on Broadway in her late twenties who has a fiance that Sarah and Frank don't trust.

The plan to save Catherine (and her trust fund) ends up requiring almost all of the past characters from the two series. That includes Gino Donatelli (Frank's partner in their detective agency), his wife Maeve who was Catherine's nursemaid, and Frank's son Brian along with his new family. From Counterfeit Lady cast, we meet again: Elizabeth's father the "Old Man" who is the king of con artists in NYC, her brother Jake, Gideon's mother, plus friends Anna and Freddie.

With so many characters in one story, some get pushed to the side. We barely see Gideon and Jake doesn't join in until half way through the book. Brian is only in one brief segment. Because of the time shift, we learn that several of the characters from the Gaslight series have died.

My favorite chapter is when Maeve and Elizabeth discover that they have very similar backgrounds and that they are at least aware of each other's family. It is obvious that they will become close friends. In fact, Maeve ends up having a major role in the scheme to protect Catherine.

On the other hand, some of the writing in the second half of the book was disjointed. Jake didn't seem like the character we knew from the earlier books and some of the plot points happened suddenly and didn't always make sense.

Since this was a mash-up of the two series, I wish that the title had reflected that by combining both named practices. Instead of just City of Promises, it could have easily been Murder in the City of Promises.

Although she answered many of the questions I had about City of Promises in the afterword, Ellen Thompson doesn't mention whether there will be any more books in the two series after this one. If this is the final one, it certainly was a nice way to wrap up both series.

3 lattes out of 5

Disclaimer: This eARC was provided by Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.