The Swindler and Other Stories

Aboard an ocean liner bound for somewhere more interesting than where they started, private detective West encounters Cynthia Mortimer, a young woman whose fascination with swindlers borders on the dangerous. She's waiting for a train, she tells him, though the way her eyes scan the passengers suggests she's waiting for something far more thrilling than railway transport. Her heart belongs to Nat Verney, a professional con artist whose charm is only outmatched by his capacity for ruin. The collection that follows examines desire and dishonesty in equal measure, where every outstretched hand might conceal a blade and every declaration of love masks some more practical calculation. Dell writes at the edge of the Edwardian era, capturing a world about to shed its Victorian inhibitions but not yet certain what it wants to become instead. Her characters gamble, scheme, and fall in love with the same reckless certainty, never quite sure whether they're the predators or the prey.