Madame Eleanor Wilde is a con artist, and like all the best con artists, she knows the best way to con someone is to show them exactly what they expect to see. She’s a very successful medium and ghost exorcist, and when she’s hired to go to England by an intriguing aristocrat who knows exactly what she is and wants to hire her to con his mother, she can’t quite resist the challenge.
Nothing is quite as it seems at the Hartford Estate, though. And when a real dead body turns up, Ellie starts to think maybe she’s in over her head.
This was such a fun read! Ellie’s cynicism and the way she read people made her so relatable and funny, and it was obvious she and Nicholas were striking sparks off each other right from the start. A cozy mystery with a healthy dollop of romantic comedy, I was giggling more than a few times while reading. There’s a fair bit of real emotion there too, because the reason why Ellie chooses to make a living conning people is to raise funds to keep her comatose sister Winnie in a comfortable care home. A triplet, Winnie and her brother Liam are the only people who really matter to Ellie, and her love for them and determination to do what’s right by those who need her most was genuinely heart-warming.
I absolutely loved this, and I really hope to read more Ellie Wilde books in the future. She’s a warm, funny, relatable heroine. I could wish for a bit more insight into Nicholas, her love interest, but since this is told in the first person from Ellie’s point of view, perhaps we’ll come to know him better in future books. Five stars.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.