Published by Headline
Publication date - 6 July 2023
Source - review copy
UPSTAIRS, MADAM IS PLANNING THE PARTY OF THE SEASON.
DOWNSTAIRS, THE SERVANTS ARE PLOTTING THE HEIST OF THE CENTURY.
When Mrs King, housekeeper to the most illustrious home in Mayfair, is suddenly dismissed after years of loyal service, she knows just who to recruit to help her take revenge.
A black-market queen out to settle her scores. An actress desperate for a magnificent part. A seamstress dreaming of a better life. And Mrs King's predecessor, who has been keeping the dark secrets of Park Lane far too long.
Mrs King has an audacious plan in mind, one that will reunite her women in the depths of the house on the night of a magnificent ball - and play out right under the noses of her former employers...
THEY COME FROM NOTHING. BUT THEY'LL LEAVE WITH EVERYTHING.
Mrs King has been dismissed. Housekeeper at the de Vries home on Park Lane, she has been unceremoniously cast out. However, Mrs King, decorous to the last on the outside, has a plan to carry out her revenge. Teaming up with a black market expert, an actress, a seamstress and another former housekeeper, Mrs King is going to take back what is owed to her. Every last item.
The story opens with Mrs King being relieved of her house keys and ejected from the Park Lane house. And if that opening scene the reader is drawn into a world of money, greed and revenge. And what a glorious world it is.
There's no doubt it's an audacious plan. Not content with taking some of the contents of the house on Park Lane, Mrs King wants everything. Every last picture, tea spoon or dustpan. Even the curtains from the windows and the carpets from the hallways. All from under the noses of hundreds of guests at the party of the year. The only thing left behind will be dark secrets revealed.
Mrs King needs help and so she turns to those with the required skills and networks. Mrs Bone, a well known and well connected fence, who taught Mrs King how to pick a lock, or a pocket. There's Winnie, friend to Mrs King and former housekeeper at the same address. The two Janes are drafted by Mrs Bone, experts in what, only they and she know. There's Hephzibah Grandcourt, fading actress and former scullery maid and Alice, Mrs King's sister, hiding from her own past.
The house is in mourning for the death of the master, Wilhelm de Vries, though the mourning is more a societal requirement than emotional. The mistress of the house, de Vries daughter, is a cold, unfeeling woman. Set on procuring a fortunate marriage, she is shunning the required decorum of a mourning period and has decreed a ball shall take place, the ball of the season. It just happens to be that the night of the ball is when Mrs King and her cohorts will execute their plan.
There is of course more to the story than a heist. Mrs King has her reasons for wanting her revenge on the house, and not just because of her dismissal. The others too have motivation other than just money, even if it is, for the two Janes, more of the thrill of the chase. As the story develops those secrets are revealed, showing the dirt hidden behind the gleaming marble stairs and highly shined silver. The seven women are there to ensure that the sins of the father are exacted on the child.
The societal differences are what play into the women's hands. No one expects the new daily woman of being a highly skilled fence with a network of helpers. They don't realise the former housekeeper is an adept pick pocket, or that her time in service has given her the tools needed to organise a multitude of hired helpers, though this time they are helping themselves to belongs not serving others. No one even so much as glances at the maids, unaware that they are orchestrating the packing up and shipping of good even before their eyes. It is their very invisibility that serves them so well, and makes a mockery of the upper classes.
I found myself willing them on, these strong women, independent in the face of servitude, battling against societal norms and the fact that they have to fight not just the class system but the fact that as women they are lesser in the eyes of society. It is this fact that also plays in their favour. Underestimated and unseen, they are hardly considered a threat and their true strength and determination is unacknowledged.
I loved every minute of this highly entertaining novel. I only wish that there was a sequel in the offing.
A delicious meeting of Downton Abbey and Ocean's Eleven, Mrs King and her gang are the Edwardian equivalent of Robin Hood, only her merry band steal from the rich and keep for themselves.
Move over Prince of Thieves. There's a new Queen of the heist in town.
You can buy a copy of the book here.
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