If I want people to trust me, I don’t tell them I’m from Elephant and Castle.
For those who don’t know the neighborhood on the south side of the Thames, it’s home to two thieving gangs, dozens of gambling halls and brothels, and a street full of pawn shops and fences, all controlled by Simon Pike.
My sister Sarah and I were born there, and I kept us alive after Ma died six years ago. Sarah’s fourteen, a scullery maid at a wealthy home in Mayfair. I worry about the work because the copper pots are heavy, but I’m relieved, too, because I don’t want her doing what I do.
I’m a thief, and I’m good at it.
Mary Pratt and I are the best earners in our ring, run by Amelia Lyle, and we’ve been jennies—partners, that is—for years. Today, we went to one of the West End department stores, our usual marks, and used a dodge that we’d rehearsed many times in the practice room upstairs at the Elephant and Castle Inn. We wore dresses with long thieving pockets and two-colored cloaks, easily flipped for disguise. As we reached Pickford’s, Mary and I entered several minutes apart, so it wouldn’t occur to any clerk, even afterwards, that we were together. She browsed the men’s neckwear, and I hovered near the gloves, asking the clerk to take out this pair, then that one, from the case. Finally, Mary’s young cousin Sid sauntered in, snatched Mary’s purse, and tore off through the front door. Mary shrieked “Thief,” threw up her hands, and slumped to the floor in a faint worthy of Drury Lane. As the gloves clerk shouted for smelling salts and shoved past me, I slid my fingers into his pocket and retrieved two coins, pocketing them without looking, but they had the feel of a shilling and a pound. And with all eyes on Mary, no one paid me a whit of attention. My hands were already slipping gloves and wooden spools of ribbon into my thieving pockets, the bulky shapes vanishing into my crinoline—
Until I glimpsed a man stepping out from behind a pillar. His eyes weren’t on Mary. He was surveying the room, looking for me.
I shoved the fourth pair of gloves into my pocket, clasped my empty hands before me, and made a show of peering worriedly at Mary, like everyone else.
My heart tumbling, I longed to snatch one more look at the man, to determine whether he was a plainclothes Yard man or a shop-hired privy. But I wouldn’t have risked meeting his eyes for the world. I knew what getting caught meant: four years in prison.
We thieves shoved fear down far enough to step over most days, but sometimes it reared up like a spectre and stared us down. This was one of those days.
AN ARTFUL DODGE
Genre: Historical Mystery 1870s
Release: June 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Victorian London comes to vivid life in this riveting heist novel about an all-female thieving gang and one young woman’s heroic plan to escape a life of crime, from the USA Today bestselling author of Down a Dark River.
She’s stolen gems, purses, and hearts—but can she steal her life back from the ring of thieves that’s claimed it?
London, 1879: Twenty-year-old Kit Jimeson has fingers so nimble she can nick a necklace off a lady in a crowded theater without raising alarm. Kit and her dodge partner, Mary, are the highest earners in the notorious all-women thieving ring in South London’s Elephant and Castle district.
Kit, whose mother had been a thief before her, dreams of a different life, one where she’s not constantly on the lookout for constables and plainclothes detectives, and where a mistake or pure bad luck won’t land her in the hangman’s noose. She has been saving her earnings so her younger sister, a maid for a wealthy Mayfair family, might have a shot at respectability.
Kit is very close to leaving the life entirely when the legendary former thief Maggie O’Connell brings her plans to a halt. Beautiful, charismatic Maggie has returned to reclaim leadership of the ring after twenty years in a brutal Australian penal colony. But Maggie desires more than mere wealth or power: She longs for revenge against those who sent her away. Kit, with her quick mind and dangerously clever hands, is Maggie’s best weapon. If Kit wants to walk away with her life, she must carry out a heist that will demand every skill she possesses.
About the author
Karen Odden received her PhD in English from New York University, writing her dissertation on Victorian literature, and subsequently edited for the academic journal Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge UP), wrote introductions to Victorian titles in the Barnes and Noble Classics Series, and taught English at UW-Milwaukee. She is the author of six crime novels set in 1870s London, including her award-winning USA Today bestselling debut, A Lady in the Smoke. Her work has been nominated for the Lefty, Anthony, Agatha, and Derringer Awards and was chosen for Best Mystery Stories of the Year in 2025 and 2026. A transplant from New York, Karen divides her time between Arizona and Utah. She is currently at work on the sequel to An Artful Dodge, coming in August 2027 (Soho). Find her online at www.karenodden.com.