Friends in High Places

Kick Keswick, the heroine of this frothy novel from Kellogg (Perfect), is bored by retirement, so it's a good thing her world just got more exciting: a scandal at the London auction house where she worked for 30 years threatens to expose her well-hidden habit of stealing jewels and replacing them with meticulous fakes. She soon finds herself trying to singlehandedly rescue the company and untangle several moneymaking schemes-all of them, frankly, quite dclass-whereby certain lowlifes, including her ex-fianc and perennial enemy, Owen Brace, are attempting to rise above their station. The hypocrisy is breathtaking: Kick is happy to admit that she overcame her dirt-poor Oklahoma background through a methodical campaign of theft from the filthy rich, so why should it bother her that others do the same? Readers who agree that upper-crust manners and mannerisms are more important than honesty, integrity or abiding by the law will be most satisfied.