Lilywhite Boys Books in Order

The Lilywhite Boys books are some of KJ Charles's most openly criminal stories, and that is part of their charm. Set in the 1890s, they follow a circle built around jewel thieves, fences, investigators, and the people unlucky enough to fall in love with them. London high society and London's underworld are always close together here. The same job may involve a duke, a music hall, a fence's kitchen, a private detective, and somebody lying very smoothly in excellent clothes.

The series begins around the orbit of the Lilywhite Boys themselves, especially Jerry Crozier and Templeton Lane, who have made a career out of slipping into polite society and stealing from it. But the books do not stay with one couple. Any Old Diamonds pairs aristocratic Alec Pyne with Jerry on a job aimed straight at Alec's monstrous father. Gilded Cage shifts to Templeton Lane and Susan Lazarus, now grown into a formidable detective. Masters in This Hall moves later and darker, with John Garland and Barnaby Littimer caught up in old damage and a Christmas-set conspiracy. The prequel The Rat-Catcher's Daughter adds Miss Christiana and Stan Kamarzyn, giving the wider circle even more shape.

Nobody here is entirely respectable.

That lets Charles have fun with morality. These books are full of thieves, blackmailers, deeply compromised aristocrats, and people who know the law is not automatically the side of justice. The series has heists and murders and false fronts, but it also pays close attention to loyalty within the group. Criminal partnership, friendship, and romance all bleed into each other. People protect their own, sometimes badly, sometimes beautifully.

The tone is quick, witty, and slightly harder-edged than some of Charles's other series. Even when a book is funny, the stakes are real. A bad family can ruin a life. A murder charge can end one. A clever theft can expose worse crimes underneath. Charles is especially good here at showing how charisma, class performance, and nerve can all function as survival skills. The setting helps too. This is a world of jewels, trains, shabby rooms, grand houses, newspapers, stage acts, and constant watchfulness.

You do not need to read Sins of the Cities first, even though a few characters cross over. The books also do not all have to be read in strict order, though it is rewarding to watch the network of people expand. If you like historical romance with thieves, investigators, morally gray choices, and a lot of sharp dialogue, Lilywhite Boys is easy to get attached to.