Shelly Munro The Shadow

The Shadow

Shelly Munro

Medallion, Jun 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 1932815503

With her father's health failing, Lady Katherine Fawkner knows she must bring in income to maintain their standard of living and pay off a debt to loan shark Richard Brauchamp, who is willing to accept her as remittance. Ergo she trains to replace him as the family cat burglar, the Shadow. Her first job stealing jewels from Perdita Moning starts off well until she overhears the target talking to her apparent lover just before a shot is fired. She finds the woman dead, takes her jewels, but also sees a photograph of a family with a girl who looks like her daughter Amber. Katherine has the first clue to identify who drugged and raped her six years ago when she was eighteen years old.

Police Inspector Kahu Williams leads the homicide investigation. He has met Katherine already and is attracted to her and though she reciprocates she has doubts about a cop in her life especially with her family. As she makes inquiries into the family photo she lifted, he begins to unwind threads that could lead him away from a killer to a female thief.

Readers will think of To Catch a Thief as Katherine and Kahu play a game of romantic cat and mouse. The two are a fun couple with her DNA baggage and his occupation making for strange bedfellows. The dual investigations, her amateur sleuth into who drugged and raped her and his into homicide and theft, make for a fine courtship that fans of a lighthearted romantic mystery will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner