A Romance Novel by KJ Charles, second in the Lilywhite Boys series. Any Old Diamonds is the first book.
Templeton Lane is in trouble: His best friend and partner in (literal) crime, Jerry Crozier, wants to retire from thievery to live a nice life with his boyfriend Alec Pyne, his last theft was a bust, and oh, he's been framed for murder.
After a fight with Jerry and their fence Stan, Templeton has no other choice but to go to the last person who might possibly help him: Susan Lazarus, a brilliant Private Detective. The only problem: they have a long past, and she hates him.
Tropes in this book:
- But We Used a Condom!: Subverted. This is how Susan got pregnant; when she and James ran out of French letters (old-time condoms), they decided the pull-out method would be fine. It was not.
- Character Overlap: Several cases, with previous romance series by KJ Charles. To name but the most significant: Susan's adoptive parents Nathaniel Roy and Justin Lazarus are the main couple of Charles' An Unnatural Vice, the second of the Sins of the Cities trilogy, and James' great-uncle Richard is one of the romantic leads of A Gentleman's Position, the final book of the Society of Gentlemen trilogy and his love interest - his valet David Cyprian - is also mentioned. Harriet Rawling, likewise, is the daughter of a pair of side-characters from the first book of this latter series, A Fashionable Indulgence, and James's abusive father made a brief appearance in A Gentleman's Position as a small child, where he appeared rather better-natured than he would turn out to be as an adult.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Susan and Templeton Lane, or rather: James Vane, his real name, were friends as children and became lovers when they were teenagers, before everything went bad.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Susan miscarried when she was pregnant by James when they were teenagers. They both acknowledge that while there was a small possibility everything would have worked out, they were very young and did not want to be parents at that time.
- Dysfunctional Family: Templeton's father exiled him to Australia to work in the mines when he was 17.
- Friend Versus Lover: Templeton does not like Alec because Jerry is staying out of the game for him and he feels like he's been abandoned. Also, because seeing Susan again opened old wounds, and so seeing his friend's domestic bliss is just salting them.
- Happily Adopted: Susan and her best friend Emma were adopted by Justin Lazarus when they were young girls. They both have his last name. Once Justin entered a relationship with Nathaniel Roy, he became a second father to the girls. Susan considers them both her fathers and loves them dearly.
- The Lost Lenore: Cara Pyne for Susan. She's moving on, but it's clear she still thinks of her.
- Meaningful Rename: James Vane takes up the name of Templeton Lane when he becomes a jewel thief. Templeton Lane was the street lived on when he was young and best friends with Susan. Later, after Susan and him clear his name, he leaves the thief life behind and returns to the name James Vane.
- Like Brother and Sister: Susan became an adoptive sister to Alec Pyne through her friendship with Cara.
- Private Detective: Susan and her governors, who are both her adopted fathers and her bosses at the detective agency.
- Revenge: As it turns out an old enemy set Templeton up deliberately as revenge for an earlier disagreement.
- Unexpected Inheritance: James' uncle left him a significant amount of money, which as it turns out was one of the reasons that his father wanted him out of the country, as he was hoping to claim the inheritance himself.
