"Her Dangerously Clever Hands," by Karen Odden, in Crimeucopia: Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press, 2024.
The publisher sent me a free copy of this magazine.
London, 1879. Inspector Michael Corravan is held in some suspicion at Scotland Yard because he is Irish by way of the infamous Whitechapel neighborhood. But when the head of a well-known band of female thieves is murdered, his familiarity with the place gets him the job of investigating.
It turns out that the main suspect is the woman he had a crush on years ago, before she was transported to Australia for theft. This is a complicated story, rich in period detail, and with a satisfactory solution.
