An Artful Dodge

 An Artful Dodge-Karen Odden

Soho Crime

Release Date: June 2, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: 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 up 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. 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.

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London, 1879—not a great time to be poor. Kit works three jobs to make ends meet and two of them are legal. She constantly worries over money: what will happen to her sister if there isn't enough money? If she gets sick and they can't afford a doctor? If Kit can't earn enough to take care of them? She saves as much as possible, but can't bring herself to leave the all-women theiving ring she's a part of because, despite the risk, it brings in good money. The other women are more than friends, many are a second family to her. As clever as the tricks these women use are, we are never shown their crimes as glamourous or fun—they steal because they have to, from people and places that can afford to lose it.

Kit and the rest of the cast in An Artful Dodge are well-drawn and relatable. In similar situations, what would anyone do to survive, and protect a beloved family member? The gang members are loyal to each other in the face of danger and hardship, and that support is echoed by other members of the community. Even minor characters are written in a fully three-dimensional style—the reader can easily see them sitting around a pub's fireplace, telling stories and drinking after a hard day, and feel like you could almost join them for a round.

The pacing was fast and exciting throughout the book: as the danger to Kit increased, tension built and I couldn't wait to see what would happen and how she would get out of the danger Maggie was weaving around her. But one of the things that struck me was that even Maggie is never painted as a total villain. She does terrible things, but the reader (and even Kit to an extent) is able to understand her point of view. As much as loyalty and family are the backbone of this book, so is the question: what makes a monster? Can one ever turn back from a course of vengeance? Does one crime cause another, or do we have choices in life? Maggie believes in vengeance, that actions have consequences and she returns to England to make that happen. But Kit finds herself asking questions that easily can be asked in situations today: where should that circle of vengeance end?

As always, some of Karen Odden's most brilliant writing is in her depictions of Victorian London. From the Thames River to the streets of South London's Elephant and Castle district, to the fanciest jewelry shops of Holbourn, every inch of the city feels alive, as if you could walk it next to Kit. 

An Artful Dodge is a masterful Victorian mystery adventure that historical mystery readers will love!

I received an ARC of this book from Soho Crime and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review   

Under a Veiled Moon

Under a Veiled Moon- Karen Odden

Crooked Lane Books

Release Date: October 11, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: One night, as the pleasure boat the Princess Alice makes her daily trip up the Thames, she collides with the Bywell Castle, a huge iron-hulled collier. The Princess Alice shears apart, throwing all 600 passengers into the river; only 130 survive. It is the worst maritime disaster London has ever seen, and early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who believe violence is the path to restoring Irish Home Rule. 

For Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan, born in Ireland and adopted by the Irish Doyle family, the case presents a challenge. Accused by the Home Office of willfully disregarding the obvious conclusion, and berated by his Irish friends for bowing to prejudice, Corravan doggedly pursues the truth, knowing that if the Princess Alice disaster is pinned on the IRB, hopes for Home Rule could be dashed forever.

Corrovan’s dilemma is compounded by Colin, the youngest Doyle, who has joined James McCabe’s Irish gang. As violence in Whitechapel rises, Corravan strikes a deal with McCabe to get Colin out of harm’s way. But unbeknownst to Corravan, Colin bears longstanding resentments against his adopted brother and scorns his help.
 
As the newspapers link the IRB to further accidents, London threatens to devolve into terror and chaos. With the help of his young colleague, the loyal Mr. Stiles, and his friend Belinda Gale, Corravan uncovers the harrowing truth—one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself.

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Inspector Corrovan of Scotland Yard, now acting superintendent at Wapping, is faced with a double problem in  Under a Veiled Moon, Karen Odden's newest historical mystery. The crash of the Princess Alice and the Bywell Castle on the Thames is the largest maritime accident to happen in London's history. Rising anti-Irish public sentiment wants to find the Irish, specifically the Irish Republican Brotherhood, guilty of sabotaging the crafts. Corrovan, Irish himself, wants to find the guilty party whether they are Irish or English- a highly unpopular sentiment as newspapers whip the general populace into a frenzy with or without worrying about facts. Knowing that political chances for Irish Home Rule are slipping farther away the longer the anti-Irish sentiments continue, that his job is on the line the longer he takes on the case, and that more lives are placed in jeopardy as the case takes him even closer to home, make this Corrovan's most difficult case yet.

Under a Veiled Moon takes place several months after the events of Karen Odden's first Inspector Corrovan book, Down a Dark River, although you don't necessarily need to have read the first book in the series to read and enjoy this one. If you did read DADR (and you should!) you'll be please to see the growth in Corrovan- both personally and professionally. A Scotland Yard investigator, he has now been given the temporary charge of Wapping Yard, a station he began at and knows well. He's in charge of more men, writing reports, and taking on a variety of more responsibilities than as 'just' an inspector. Personally he has taken to heart the lessons he learned on the "river murders" as he calls them and is working hard to temper his natural inclinations to act like a bull in a china shop and charge forward with every thing. He works better with his superior, Howard Vincent and is more empathetic with witnesses and victims when interviewing them. He often has trouble bringing that empathy to his young adopted brother, Colin Doyle. He sees Colin taking wrong paths and not listening to sense and you can feel Michael's frustration radiating off the pages in each scene between them. It's obvious he's as frustrated with himself for not being able to magically fix whatever problems Colin has as he is with Colin for falling in with gangs and trying to seem more of "a man". Michael still has lessons to learn about his own self-awareness and impact on others, and I think he has begun to realize that.

Revenge, regret, and prejudice swirl together at the heart of Veiled Moon: who feels what and what do we do with those feelings. Can we move past something if we understand it is an accident vs knowing someone is responsible for it? What does it mean if someone is responsible for something terrible? The IRB blame England for everything terrible that has happened to the Irish people and have begun to use violence instead of words to demand Home Rule. The reader sees the reaction of the average Londoner, which is often hatred of the Irish for these revenge acts, lumping all the Irish together as 'guilty' just as the IRB have done with the English. Neither side seems willing to admit that they both share blame, and that most people are innocent of any wrong doing and should be left alone. Politics and terrorism have changed the world scene and Corrovan, the Princess Alice, the Bywell Castle, and the innocent people of London are now caught in the middle without realizing it. 

There is a lot of emotion in this book, both for Corrovan and for the reader. Corrovan must deal with family stresses as well as having to swallow all the hate being thrown at him as he tries to do his job. The empathetic style of writing Odden has means that the reader feels Corrovan's pain, his frustration, his anger, his worry. He sees both London in general and Whitechapel in particular changing thanks to this new kind of terror and it frightens him, as it does us, since we know it will become the new normal instead of an outlier. 

As for the mystery itself- it is a brilliant puzzle of red herrings, clues within clues, layers within layers, and plots within plots that come together in the end to create a shocking and tragic solution. 

If you love historical mysteries, and if you read and loved Down a Dark River, then I have no doubt you will love Under a Veiled Moon as much as I did.  Make this one a must read on your TBR pile!

Down A Dark River

 Down A Dark River - Karen Odden

Crooked Lane Books

Release Date: November 9, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: London, 1878. One April morning, a small boat bearing a young woman’s corpse floats down the murky waters of the Thames. When the victim is identified as Rose Albert, daughter of a prominent judge, the Scotland Yard director gives the case to Michael Corravan, one of the only Senior Inspectors remaining after a corruption scandal the previous autumn left the division in ruins. Reluctantly, Corravan abandons his ongoing case, a search for the missing wife of a shipping magnate, handing it over to his young colleague, Mr. Stiles.

An Irish former bare-knuckles boxer and dockworker from London’s seedy East End, Corravan has good street sense and an inspector’s knack for digging up clues. But he’s confounded when, a week later, a second woman is found dead in a rowboat, and then a third. The dead women seem to have no connection whatsoever. Meanwhile, Mr. Stiles makes an alarming discovery: the shipping magnate’s missing wife, Mrs. Beckford, may not have fled her house because she was insane, as her husband claims, and Mr. Beckford may not be the successful man of business that he appears to be.
 
Slowly, it becomes clear that the river murders and the case of Mrs. Beckford may be linked through some terrible act of injustice in the past—for which someone has vowed a brutal vengeance. Now, with the newspapers once again trumpeting the Yard’s failures, Corravan must dredge up the truth—before London devolves into a state of panic and before the killer claims another innocent victim.

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In Karen Odden's newest historical mystery, Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan must discover the murderer of a young woman who is placed in a small rowboat on the Thames. Overworked, Corravan gives the case of a missing woman to his colleague Stiles. But as more women are murdered the men discover that the missing woman and the dead girls have more in common than meets the eye. And it may be that secrets hidden in the posh Mayfair residences instead of seedy riverside docks hide the clues to solve the cases and save other innocent lives.

Unlike Odden's other books (A Trace of Deceit, A Dangerous Duet, A Lady in the Smoke) Down a Dark River features not a young woman trying to solve a mystery, but a Scotland Yard inspector.  Michael Corravan is hampered by the fact that he's Irish at a time when the English don't like the Irish, he's from Whitechapel when he's investigating the murder of upperclass women, and still prominent in the public mind is the trial of four Scotland Yard detectives for taking bribes, the Yard has been reorganized and its credit with the public is at an all-time low. Corravan wants to find the killer but his stubborn push for answers isn't getting him anything but enemies and political red tape from higher ups at the Yard. 

I loved Corravan even when I was frustrated with him. He is a complex, flawed, but basically decent man, wrestling with how to best solve cases and help others. He values his small circle of friends and family, although he doesn't always know how to show it. As his lover, author Belinda Gale puts it, Michael likes being the knight solving everyone's problems, but he doesn't like being seen as human, with all the messy emotions that come with it. He's as prickly as a porcupine, never wants to ask help of anyone, and is slow to trust. As Dark River progresses we see Corravan try to change his approach to life and maybe that's what leads to the questions he (and the reader) have to ask themselves at the end. What is justice? How are justice and revenge different? Can it be found through the law courts and police procedures or only on the streets? Are there some people so self-centered (or evil) that they can't be touched by either? Are there some crimes that can never be balanced?

In Dark River Corravan's view of himself and the secondary characters evolves over the course of the book and the reader gets a more nuanced view of people as the book progresses. His relations with others develops over the course of the book too- I especially liked how his relationship with his supervisor Vincent and junior Stiles changed over the course of the book. One character the reader sees clearly from the beginning is London- and the Thames. Karen Odden has a special talent for making her locations as much of a living, breathing character as any flesh and blood character in her books and from the slimy docks at the Thames to the glittery streets of Mayfair, she succeeds brilliantly again here.    

Down a Dark River is timely in many ways, without seeming to preach to the reader or put modern views into Victorian character's mouths. Corravan has to struggle with power throughout the book: who has it, who uses it, and what do they use it for. It appears in different places and different ways, asking Corravan and the reader to look at ever situation and person through multiple angles before reaching conclusions. Powerful men he meets try to prevent him from pursuing his investigations, while he meets women with no formal political or social power trying to do incredible acts of kindness and life changing work.  In many ways this is Corravan's wake up call to see that the people he thinks of as powerless are not the only ones without a voice, and makes him wonder how that lack of power would effect him, as well as those around him. Hopefully we will get to see more of Michael Corravan in the future, and he will hang on to the lessons he learned the hard way here, as they certainly make him a better, more compassionate detective and man. Something Victorian England needed every bit as much as we do today. 

Possible Trigger Warnings: Discussions of rape and violence

Trace of Deceit

A Trace of Deceit- Karen Odden
William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: December 17, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: A young painter digs beneath the veneer of Victorian London’s art world to learn the truth behind her brother’s murder... 

Edwin is dead. That’s what Inspector Matthew Hallam of Scotland Yard tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. While the news is shocking, Annabel can’t say it’s wholly unexpected, given Edwin’s past as a dissolute risk-taker and art forger, although he swore he’d reformed. After years spent blaming his reckless behavior for their parents’ deaths, Annabel is now faced with the question of who murdered him—because Edwin’s death was both violent and deliberate. A valuable French painting he’d been restoring for an auction house is missing from his studio: find the painting, find the murderer. But the owner of the artwork claims it was destroyed in a warehouse fire years ago.

As a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and as Edwin’s closest relative, Annabel makes the case that she is crucial to Matthew’s investigation. But in their search for the painting, Matthew and Annabel trace a path of deceit and viciousness that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of politics, corruption, and secrets someone will kill to keep.  

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Annabel Rowe has been slowly working to reconcile with her brother Edwin, but one day she arrives at his flat to discover two detectives there with the news that Edwin is dead.  Murdered, with a valuable painting he had been cleaning now missing.  Annabel needs to understand what happened to her brother to gain some closure on his death (and life) and she convinces Inspector Matthew Hallam that her knowledge of the art world and Edwin will prove valuable to discovering his murderer.  But what they discover is the darkness behind the art world, where secrets fester and can prove worth killing for.

A Trace of Deceit is an engrossing Victorian mystery with a strong central figure in Annabel.  A student at the Slade Art School, she is trying to find her place in the masculine world of painting.  She sees herself as an observer instead of a participant in the world and holds herself apart from fellow students and her older brother, trying to prevent herself from being hurt.  But Annabel is only fooling herself- she's a caring, compassionate woman who feels deeply.  Edwin's death hits her hard, but she finds strength in working with Matthew to discover the killer.  She doesn't shy away from hard truths, although she might not think of them as automatically as a more cynical person would.  And there are plenty of hard truths about Edwin that she has to accept in order to understand his murder.

Where Odden's A Dangerous Duet brought readers into intimate contact with the city of London, A Trace of Deceit focuses on its people.  Like Annabel herself, we focus on how they interact, what they show, and what they hide.  We see through the eyes of a painter the light and the dark that make up the world around Annabel and Matthew.  Odden uses this not only to give the reader brilliant descriptions of the lives around our heroes, but to plant red herrings and clues with equal strength, forcing the reader to continually adjust their view of what seems, at first, to be a simple murder.  

Engrossing from start to finish, A Trace of Deceit will keep readers guessing from start to finish, in a book impossible to put down until the last stone is unturned and the last secret is revealed.  Full of heart and empathy, Odden explores how individuals deal with personal and family tragedies, betrayals, and secrets.  A must read for fans of Sherry Thomas, Anne Perry, and Victorian mystery lovers everywhere.

Author Interview: Karen Odden

USA Today Bestselling author Karen Odden

 Historical mystery writer Karen Odden's debut novel, A Lady in the Smoke, hit the USA Today bestseller's list and won the New Mexico-Arizona 2017 Book Award for e-Book Fiction.  In her newest release, A Dangerous Duet, Odden returns to Victorian England with Nell Hallam, an ambitious pianist who stumbles across a disturbing mystery while playing piano in a Soho music hall.     Karen took a break from her crazy schedule of writing, book promotions, and family to talk with me about Dangerous Duet, her writing, and more!






Nell Hallam isn't a traditional Victorian young woman.  She doesn't balk at dressing in men's clothing, working in a rough music hall, or facing danger to help friends and family.  What inspired you to create the character of Nell? 

Years ago, when I was doing research for the Introduction that I wrote for Charles Dickens’s Hard Times(for the Barnes & Noble classics series) I came across the story of Fanny Dickens, his older sister, who was a brilliant pianist and attended the Royal Academy of Music in London in the 1820s. Their father was an irresponsible spendthrift, always in debt, which resulted both in Charles working in the infamous bootblack factory, and Fanny having to leave the Academy because she couldn’t afford tuition. Eventually she was allowed to return in exchange for providing lessons to other students. But it got me to thinking—what would happen if she hadn’t been offered that position? There weren’t many professions open to women in the 1870s in England, and most of them weren’t particularly remunerative: seamstress, governess, companion, nurse—and prostitute. Some female performers were paid decently, but that depended upon having a particular skill or what we’d now call “street cred” from graduating from a school like the Academy. So I wondered, could Nell earn the tuition by playing piano? Were there places she might be hired? That brought me to the music halls, of which there were hundreds in London by 1875.

One of the things that I think really sets you apart as an author is your ability to describe London as if it is a living, breathing character.  How do you immerse yourself in the city to describe it in such sensory detail?

Images are a great help. You can go online and find dozens of images for Victorian music halls, the Pantechnicon on fire, the sheet music Nell might have used, costumes, and London itself. I was very lucky this time in that there is still one Victorian music hall standing: Wilton’s, in Graces Alley, Whitechapel (www.wiltons.org.uk). In 2012, when I was researching for this book, I had the chance to tag along with my husband on a business trip, and I went not only to the Royal Academy, where I was lucky enough to find an exhibit on music halls, but also to Wilton’s. I prowled all over the place, including the basement where the plaster was falling off the bricks and the floors were uneven. I stood at the back of the music hall and could envision Nell in the corner at stage right with her piano. From there, it was easy to imagine the Octavian.

Do you carefully plot out every scene in your books or see where the characters take you?

I begin with a premise and a character. After that, it’s an uneven progression among careful plotting, adventurous research, and letting my characters lead. I often write plot points on sticky notes, which I lay out on my floor; then I move them around to find the best order to create tension and build suspense. But let’s say there’s a scene that I know has to happen. For example, in my first book, A Lady in the Smoke, I knew that Elizabeth and Tom Flynn had to meet; I needed a scene in which he gave her a piece of information about her father that she didn’t know, and she convinced him that she was willing to help find the truth. But as I sat at my desk to write that scene, I felt as though both those characters were so clear in my head, I could just push Elizabeth into the room where Tom Flynn has been waiting … and then they did the moving and talking; I just wrote down what happened.

People who have read A Lady in the Smoke will notice the brief cameo in A Dangerous Duet of Mr. Flynn and Jeremy at the Falcon newspaper offices. Was that a coincidence? Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? Should we expect surprise "guest appearances" by previous characters in future books too?

Yes! I want each book to stand alone, but I love the idea of creating a world in which characters live beyond the pages of a single book. To be honest, I feel wary about writing a series in which the protagonist remains the same. I know many other mystery/suspense writers manage to do it, and do it well—Susan Elia MacNeal, Rhys Bowen, Anne Perry, and G. M. Malliet, to mention a few. But I am afraid it might begin to feel formulaic—and I might get bored! So for now I plan to remain in the world of 1875 London, and while I may revisit characters, I don’t anticipate writing a series of books with the same protagonist every time. However, in my third novel, about a young woman painter at the Slade in London, Mr. Flynn has a cameo—and Inspector Matthew Hallam (Nell’s brother) becomes one of the main characters. 

So much of A Dangerous Duet focuses on the importance of music in Nell's life? Do you play an instrument? What are your favorite kinds of music? Composers?

I played piano (badly and briefly) as a child; but my father was a classically trained pianist and played the organ at churches and gave piano lessons. We had a baby grand in our living room at home, and piano is still my favorite instrument, with the cello a runner-up. Of myself and my three siblings, only my brother Kevin inherited my father’s enormous talent. He can hear a song once and play it by ear on the piano; he played violin when he was young and still plays bass and guitar and keyboards. One of my favorite things about him coming to visit is he’ll play the piano in our den! My son plays piano as well, and one of the pieces he is working on now is the Mozart Sonata in C that is one of Nell’s audition pieces and will be familiar to many of my readers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXIu0MRuIQU). The second piece of audition music is Chopin’s Scherzo, which I picked on the advice of a professional musician; after I heard it a few times it became one of my favorite pieces of classical music. Here’s a link to a performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7o3e8InNig

What kind of research do you do and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

I usually begin with a premise and research as I go. For example, when I was researching for A Dangerous Duet, I didn’t originally have an inspector character in mind. But when I realized I wanted one, I found several books and articles about Scotland Yard, the best being Haia Shpayer-Makov’s The Ascent of the Detective. After the first draft was finished, I realized I needed to bring the injured character closer to Nell than a random patient, to make her desire to help more personal; so I invented Nell’s friend Marceline—which meant a whole new round of research into trapeze artists of the era. So I don’t do all my research up front; the story often dictates when I have to take a break and start reading around on a particular topic. But research is a delightful rabbit hole! 

What was the most interesting thing you discovered while doing research for this book?

Music halls were astonishing places. People attended them the way we attend movie theaters today. The variety of acts is astounding—everything from trained animals to trapeze acts to knife-throwers and musicians and songstresses. But they also provided a place for the lower classes to consolidate their class identity—not merely in terms of what they weren’t (middle class, rather serious, aspiring to bettering themselves, pursuing their work ethic)—but what they were: bawdy, robust, gleeful, wry, cynical and practical. In tone, most of the acts were more along the lines of a Saturday Night Live skit than a beautifully produced Broadway show.

Did publishing your first book, A Lady in the Smoke, change your writing process?

Oh, gosh yes—in about a million ways. I made so many mistakes writing that book! But bad mistakes make for efficient learning. For example, when I first wrote Lady, the railway disaster—the inciting incident that kicks off the action—didn’t appear until chapter 8! Now (in its finished version) it appears at the end of chapter 1. Those first seven chapters were important to have in my head; but they didn’t belong in the book. It took me some time to see that the inciting incidents need to happen early. With A Dangerous Duet, it starts a bit slower than Lady—there is no trainwreck right away, so to speak. But Nell finding Marceline half-dead in the alley happens in chapter 1. It just takes a little while to see why that’s important and what it means. Lady also taught me the importance of making sure that the stakes are personal for the protagonist. The question I always ask is: what does she stand to lose if she doesn’t solve the puzzle? It can’t just be for the “greater good” of society. I also learned about the importance of writing backstories, even for the minor characters. I need those in order to feel as though my characters aren’t merely foils or helpers or suitors for the protagonist. They have to live and breathe their own concerns, or they feel hollow, and I get an uneasy feeling in my gut.

What particular challenge do you face in your writing?  What is difficult for you?

Many aspects of writing are challenging—in a good way. But what is most difficult for me is humor. I am the least funny person I know. (Seriously!) That’s not to say I don’t laugh—I do! When I get the New Yorker, I read the cartoons first and chortle over them. I love a funny story; I love funny movies; I even like my son’s terrible puns. But let me explain: a few years ago some friends and I were sitting around drinking wine and playing Cards Against Humanity. It’s sort of like Apples to Apples, except for adults, and it’s pretty profane. The idea is that the dealer lays down a card and then all the other players anonymously put down a card from their hand that makes a “match”; usually the aim is to be clever or funny. The person who makes the best match gets to be dealer for the next hand. Well, we went twenty rounds and I was never the dealer. My friends began to feel sorry for me and let me deal a few times, so I’d have a chance! You wouldn’t think humor is important when writing a mystery, but I think the best mysteries do have some humor—dark, or wry, or sideways. It’s necessary to leaven the tale. 

Karen and her hiking partner, Rosy the beagle

When you aren't writing, what else do you enjoy doing?

I have two kids, so a lot of my time the last decade was spent just being a mom. But now that they’re older, they need less of my time, so I take time to hike in the beautiful desert, read (always!) for fun, bake, and binge-watch Netflix! The dark series Ozark, with Laura Linney and Jason Bateman, is my latest catnip. 

Dangerous Duet

A Dangerous Duet- Karen Odden
William Morrow/Harper Collins
Release Date: November 6, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Nineteen-year-old Nell Hallam lives in a modest corner of Mayfair with her brother Matthew, an inspector at Scotland Yard. An exceptionally talented pianist, she aspires to attend the Royal Academy; but with tuition beyond their means, Nell sets out to earn the money herself—by playing piano in a popular Soho music hall. And the fact that she will have to disguise herself as a man and slip out at night to do it doesn’t deter her.

Spending evenings at the Octavian is like entering an alternate world, one of lively energy, fascinating performers, raucous patrons—and dark secrets. And when Nell stumbles upon the operations of an infamous crime ring working in the shadows of the music hall, she is drawn into a conspiracy that stretches the length of London. To further complicate matters, she has begun to fall for the hall owner's charismatic son, Jack, who has secrets of his own. 

The more Nell becomes a part of the Octavian’s world, the more she risks the relationships with the people she loves. And when another performer is left for dead in an alley as a warning, she realizes her future could be in jeopardy in more ways than one.

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Nell Hallam, nineteen and desperate to be accepted to the Royal Academy to further her future as a pianist, doesn't let convention stop her from reaching her goals.  To earn the needed tuition she plays piano at the Octavian Music Hall- which requires her to pretend she's a man.  There she makes friends with an unusual assortment of people, including trapeze artist Marceline and handyman Jack- who just happens to be the owner's son.  After finding Marceline beaten in an alley one night, Nell realizes there is more going on at the Octavian than music and a good time.  Nell needs to help her Scotland Yard Inspector brother take down a vicious ring of thieves and murderers- including dirty cops and Jack's own father- while keeping her friends and their secrets safe.

Nell is a woman ahead of her time, willing to step beyond the boundaries of convention to reach her goals and protect the people she loves.  Mature and rational, she is also willing to listen to her heart when it comes to the people around her.  Through her eyes we see people not only as they present themselves to the world, but also the complicated, multiple layers beneath their masks. Primary and secondary characters alike unfold layer by layer, all complex people with hopes, dreams, fears, and motives beyond what is seen on the surface.

Odden's debut novel, A Lady in the Smoke, introduced readers to a wonderful new author who knows how to describe London and the surrounding areas as if it is one of the book's characters and that talent is even more in evidence here.  A Dangerous Duet vividly brings readers into the double life of Victorian  London: beautiful Mayfair homes and first rate museums alongside the dirty alleys and rickety buildings of Soho.  You smell the bread being sold, feel the cobblestones beneath your feet, and hear the busy traffic on the streets. You check your hands for splinters, feel the smoothness of piano keys, and feel your heart leap in your chest right along with Nell.

A fast-paced novel blending the perfect amount of suspense and mystery with a deft touch of romance and music, A Dangerous Duet is a perfect book for mystery lovers!