Marne Davis Kellogg, Friends in High Places

Friends in High Places

Marne Davis Kellogg

St. Martin's, Mar 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 0312337299

Former jewel thief Kick Keswick retired to Provence with her husband former Inspector Thomas Curtis. However when Thomas is called back by Scotland Yard to work a high profile case and Kick learns her former place of employment is in financial trouble, they both return to work. At Ballantine & Company Auctioneers, an appraiser made a mistake that led to a loss of millions and a firing. Also a person returning jewels substituted false stones causing the current fiscal crisis.

Kick knows that her former fianc owner Owen Brace is the on who returned the phony gems, but she has no proof. Sister Immaculata wants to sell a jeweled Madonna so that the proceeds can be used to restore her order to health. She knows where the purloined jeweled Madonnas are but cannot get to

them because the possessor of them is extremely powerful. When Constance Flynn comes in to sell all her jewels including a fake which resides in Kick's safety deposit box, she is forced to attend the wedding of the woman's son in order to substitute the fake jewels for the real ones. Constance's beau turns out to be Owen while another woman who Kick likes is married to the killer who possesses the jeweled Madonna's. Kick wants to steal them and get them to Sister Immaculata whom she thinks might be her daughter.

Marne Davis Kellogg has a hit series because of her heroine, a jewel thief with a heart of gold streaked with larceny. There is plenty of action as the support cast turns the storyline into a special cozy as they play major roles along side the kick butt heroine in the jeweled purloining "Olympics". Friends in High Places is a charming superb suspense thriller.

Harriet Klausner