THE CONFIDENCE GAMES

Amy’s debut follows a pair of female tricksters forced to steal something they don’t want for someone who’s given them nothing but grief.

Five years ago, actuary Emma Oxley’s old school friend Nellie Yarrow rescued her after she discovered her worthless fiance/boss in bed with his secretary and lost her home, job, and love in one fell swoop. Now it’s Nellie who needs Emma’s help. Just as the duo are launching their latest con (the rules of this “Bonnie and Clyde without the guns and murder”: swindle only men who can afford and deserve it), Nellie is kidnapped by someone who uses a 10-year-old to deliver a note that takes Emma by a decidedly roundabout route to a rendezvous. There, she’s informed that Nellie—who vanished from their ritzy hotel room—will be released only after Emma steals the Heart of Envy, a diamond and emerald bracelet the dark web is buzzing about, from an upcoming Tiffany exhibition at the St. Jude gallery and turns it over to the kidnapper, who calls himself James Reid, and his boss, the shadowy Mr. L. Emma’s first reaction is panic, because after all, she’s a con artist, not a thief. But working first with Dax Frederick, her tech sidekick and assistant, and then, improbably, with Nellie herself, she hatches a scheme that depends on impersonation, split-second timing, a fake Heart of Envy, and an unbroken skein of luck. Complications ensue.

Amy can’t make this caper remotely plausible, but she keeps it tense, inventive, and fizzy. More, please.