Thief’s Mark is the seventh in Carla Neggers’ Sharpe & Donovan series, featuring two FBI agents. However, for those of us who haven’t read one in the series, this may be a good start. Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan are on their honeymoon, so it’s a new start in their lives. Or is it?

The honeymoon is over and the two agents are planning to head to London before heading home. However, Emma’s grandfather meets with them, and has a strange story to tell. Someone broke into his house, and found photos and small stone crosses, all linked to Oliver York, an Englishman with a tragic past. Part of Oliver’s mysterious past, though, is the ten years he spent as an art thief. Because of the family business, Sharpe Fine Art Recovery, Emma’s family had been on Oliver’s trail before he started working for MI5.

It seems someone is looking for connections to Oliver. Is it the man who bleeds to death in Oliver’s yard? Oliver’s garden designer, Henrietta, once an MI5 agent herself, is on the site when the man dies. But, Oliver runs. Is he a suspect, a killer? Or is he the man who witnessed his parents’ murders when he was just eight, and may have recognized the man who died in his arms? It’s a mystery that involves MI5, the local police, the honeymooning FBI agents. It’s a story that sweeps from Ireland to England, Scotland, and Maine.

As I said, there’s good reason to start with Thief’s Mark if you haven’t read earlier books in the series. There’s not a great deal of action, but there is a lot of character interaction. The characters from previous books unite to bring up past history, the death of Oliver’s parents, his kidnapping. There’s a great deal of care taken with Oliver because he’s valuable as an expert in art theft. There’s a little romance, but most of the story slowly develops as readers discover Oliver’s life history. It’s the story of an “enigmatic, frustrating, larcenous, tortured and sexy” man.

Neggers, in her Author Note, invites readers to enjoy the diversion. It’s a “dive into Emma and Colin’s world, with a cheeky art thief, a spy with a penchant for gardening, an Irish priest tested by a murderer’s secrets and an octogenarian art detective who doesn’t mind breaking a few rules.”

Carla Neggers’ website is www.CarlaNeggers.com

Thief’s Mark by Carla Neggers. MIRA. 2017. ISBN 9780778330318 (hardcover), 332p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book to participate in a blog tour.