Kit Shannon is back in this turn-of-the-twentieth-century legal thriller, this time as Kit Shannon Fox. Kit is returning from her honeymoon in Hawaii with her new husband, Ted Fox. Trouble follows Kit like a dog on a leash, and before the ship reaches its San Leandro port, fellow passenger Chilton Boswell turns up dead. Before anyone else even knows Boswell is dead, his wife, Wanda, is knocking on Kit’s door, asking for her help, and Kit is immediately up to her eyebrows in a murder investigation. As Ted puts it, “I never thought your work could catch up to us on the open sea.” Kit’s job is made difficult by the prejudice of the men in the justice system, and by her own client, who is both a disreputable dancer, and a brick shy of a full load.
Kit is one of the few female lawyers in the United States and has a reputation for defending her clients vigorously. Much like Perry Mason, she is a thorough investigator and has been known to use courtroom drama to prove her client’s innocence. Kit’s investigation keeps her in San Leandro while Ted’s returns to their home in the more modern Los Angeles. Kit digs up dirt, tries the court’s patience and scandalizes the social elite as she presses forward to prove Wanda’s innocence. Kit is pregnant, and for a woman to continue working in her delicate condition…well, it’s scandalous.
James Scott Bell gives us a well-researched glimpse into life a hundred years ago, at the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of the technological boom. There are new products and inventions everywhere, including the new motion picture films, which Kit cleverly uses to prove Wanda’s innocence.MacAlister provides more of the history and creation of Moravians through Paen’s hunt for the Simia Gestor Coda. The Coda is rumored to contain the details about the origins of Dark Ones, including a way to unmake the curse binding them to their soulless state, without involving a Beloved.
I am usually suspicious of female characters created by male authors. They don’t usually get it right. Bell does, though, creating a believable heroine who is both feminine and strong. She and Ted both struggle with her non-traditional role and how that affects marriage and family. Ted is not always happy with what Kit does. She travels without him and is not always home when he gets there. Kit is a woman at the cutting edge of a new world. She and her husband must learn to negotiate this new world together, because this isn’t Kit Shannon Fox’s last legal battle.