A [book:Code Name Verity|11925514] prequel? Don't mind if I do! I loved the interesectionality of character layers here--gender matters, class matters, ethnicity matters, disability matters, sexuality matters (and can be flexible and explored)...and you can be a disabled woman who abled people look down on, and still look down on Irish Travelers. For example.

I wasn't as invested in the mystery element (of the tituarl pearl thief) so much as I just loved (most of) these characters. If you've liked Elizabeth Wein's other books in this series-ish thing, you'll definitely want to pick this up. It could also standalone if you like historical mysteries.

One note: I read this from an e-arc and I *think* there was a formatting error, in that it kept repeating a few scenes? Like some of it I got was due to her memory loss and things coming back to her but there were a few repeats that didn't seem to make sense. (Also they were in different font.) I'll skim through a finished copy when it comes out and see about that. It wasn't a huge deal but it was a little confusing?