Friends in High Places (Kick Keswick Mysteries #4) (Kindle Edition)

by Marne Davis Kellogg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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 déclassé-whereby certain lowlifes, including her ex-fiancé 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Break out the bubbly (Dom Perignon, of course)! Kellogg's high-flying, high-class jewelry thief turned jewelry sleuth, Kick Keswick, is back, lured out of retirement when her former employer, the esteemed auction house Ballantine & Company, finds itself embroiled in a scandal involving fake gems (the originals stolen by Kick herself during her previous life as the notorious Shamrock Burglar). No sooner does she concoct an intricate plan to resteal the stolen gems when Kick is contacted by an intriguing young nun who needs her help recovering a trove of jewel-encrused figurines stolen from her order's convent during a heinous murder. The fact that the murderer is also the owner of the jewels she must retrieve in order to salvage the auctioneer's reputation fazes the intrepid Kick not one whit. Decadent as a finely shaved white truffle, frothy as a lemon souffle, Kellogg's delectably glamorous Kick Keswick mystery series offers a zesty, sensuous foray into the lifestyles of the obscenely wealthy and egregiously infamous. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (March 20, 2007)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• ASIN: B001C4TZGS
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #83,600 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mystery, decadent chocolate, champagne and fabulous jewelry!, April 1, 2007

By	L. Long - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Friends in High Places (Kick Keswick Mysteries #4) (Hardcover)

Kick Keswick has retired from her vocation at Ballentine's (and from her avocation as the Shamrock Burglar) although she finds she is a bit bored with living the quiet life that she planned for herself. Overhearing at a party that her former employer is in trouble (and hoping that trouble does not lead back to her) Kick decides to return to Ballentines to find out the truth. When her husband Thomas gets called back to Scotland Yard to help with a case, Kick travels back to London, and soon finds things as complicated as she had suspected, with her old nemesis behind the potential collapse of the auction house. Through a twist of fate, Kick finds herself running the organization and is approached by a young nun with an intriguing jeweled statue to sell, and an even more incredible story of the history of the statue and the others that are missing. Kick hatches a meticulous plan to not only restore the jeweled statues to their rightful owner, but to replace an intricate piece of jewelry that she herself had stolen years before (because, after all, self-preservation has been Kick's goal since she was a child).

This is the fourth book in this series, but Ms. Kellogg does such a wonderful job in drawing out and explaining the intracacies of each character that it is not necessary to have read the others to understand the background (although all of the rest are also fabulous fun). This one is my favorite, because we finally understand the details in Kick's past that led to her life of larceny. She also develops friends for the first time in her life; one who may turn out to be her daughter. Kick is so likeable that you tend to overlook the fact that she lies, steals, and changes identities so well that she can fool just about everyone (except the lovable Thomas, of course). But she has such a wonderful heart, and justifies her behavior by only stealing from the people who deserve it! Kick takes the art of revenge to a whole new level!

Friends in High Places is an entertaining read, and it is obvious that Ms. Kellogg enjoys writing about Kick. Let's hope there will be many more books in the future about Kick's mis-adventures!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fake jewels and murder, March 19, 2007

By	Dawn Dowdle "mysteryloverscorner.com reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Friends in High Places (Kick Keswick Mysteries #4) (Hardcover)

Kick Keswick, retired jewel thief, is enjoying her life with her husband, former Inspector Thomas Curtis. Thomas still gets called in by Scotland Yard, leaving Kick alone. When Kick finds out the Ballantine and Company Auctioneers, where she used to work, is having serious problems, she decides to jump in and help. Especially when she figures out that her old enemy is behind some of it and that lots of the fake jewels she'd carefully substituted over years of secret theft are possibly going to be exposed.

When she arrives at Ballantine, she ends up with a more time consuming position than she preferred. And she finds out that things at Ballantine are much worse than she imagined. As her enemy gets closer, Kick finds she has to work hard to keep a step ahead. A young nun comes to Kick with a great jeweled figurine and a story of murder. Kick soon realizes she must sneak into a high-society wedding in the Italian Alps, break into a castle owned by a murderer, and do it with style and finesse so she doesn't get caught. Can she locate the missing items and replace the needed jewels all without raising any suspicions or putting herself in danger?

I love this series. Kick is such a great character. She's high society with an undercurrent of intrigue and secrecy. Even though she's now retired, she always gets called out to help by using her skills as a jewel thief. I enjoy these books because I get to see a slice of life that I wouldn't experience any other way. The locations and food are always exotic.

I can't wait for the next installment. I highly recommend this book and series.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars charming superb suspense thriller, March 24, 2007

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Friends in High Places (Kick Keswick Mysteries #4) (Hardcover)

Former jewel thief Kick Keswick retired to Provence with her husband former Inspector Thomas Curtis. However when Thomas is called back by Scotland Yard to work a high profile case and Kick learns her former place of employment is in financial trouble, they both return to work. At Ballantine & Company Auctioneers, an appraiser made a mistake that led to a loss of millions and a firing. Also a person returning jewels substituted false stones causing the current fiscal crisis.

Kick knows that her former fiancé owner Owen Brace is the on who returned the phony gems, but she has no proof. Sister Immaculata wants to sell a jeweled Madonna so that the proceeds can be used to restore her order to health. She knows where the purloined jeweled Madonnas are but cannot get to
them because the possessor of them is extremely powerful. When Constance Flynn comes in to sell all her jewels including one of which a fake which resides in Kick's safety deposit box, she is forced to attend the wedding of the woman's son in order to substitute the fake jewels for the real ones. Constance's beau turns out to be Owen while another woman who Kick likes is married to the killer who possesses the jeweled Madonna's. Kick wants to steal them and get them to Sister Immaculata whom she thinks might be her daughter.

Marne Davis Kellogg has a hit series because of her heroine, a jewel thief with a heart of gold streaked with larceny. There is plenty of action as the support cast turns the storyline into a special cozy as they play major roles along side the kick butt heroine in the jeweled purloining "Olympics". Friends in High Places is a charming superb suspense thriller.

Harriet Klausner