The Brass Bowl

The setup is delicious: a bored Manhattan socialite lets a mysterious woman believe he's a notorious jewel thief, simply because it makes him more interesting to her. Daniel Maitland has exhausted the city's pleasures until nothing surprises him anymore, until a woman in grey mistakes him for Daniel Anisty, the famous safecracker. Rather than correct her, Maitland seizes the chance to be someone worth pursuing. He "cracks" his own safe, "stealing" the legendary Maitland jewels to maintain the charade. But as the web of deception deepens, he discovers the woman harbors secrets of her own, and the line between the man he pretends to be and the man he's becoming begins to blur. Vance's 1907 novel is a swift, stylish caper that treats identity as costume and romance as adventure. It's for anyone who wants a turn-of-the-century romp with more wit than weight, where the real mystery isn't the stolen jewels but whether either of them is playing a role anymore.