Marne Davis Kellogg specializes in female protagonists who are not what you’d consider warm and fuzzy. Edgy and decadent, yes. Cute and cuddly? Uh, no. Back in the mid/late 90s she wrote an enjoyable mystery series featuring Lilly, a female Marshal in Wyoming who runs her own security firm. Lilly is always well dressed, travels in her family’s private helicopter, and is involved with a man whose jobs revolve around opera and rodeo. In her new stand alone, Kellogg’s female protagonist has moved even further into the edgy realm and therein lies the strength of Brilliant.

Kathleen Day Keswick, “Kick” to her friends and lovers, is a survivor. As a 15-year-old she gave birth to a child she was forced to give up. That moment defined her life. She determined to never be at the mercy of anyone again. At 18 she escaped her life of petty crime and neglect in Oklahoma and traveled to London where she gained a mentor and lover in Sir Cramner Ballantine, a man more then forty years her senior. Sir Cramner became her Henry Higgins. He educated and trained her in every facet of a cultured life, and gave her an outlet for that education by hiring her as his executive assistant at his auction house, Ballantine and Co.

Her other outlet is her career as a jewel thief. This secret life keeps her fulfilled like nothing else can. She became a thief in Oklahoma to get back at the society that locked her out and for the more practical purpose of earning money. Though it eventually led to jail time, Kick was undeterred. Once she was in London and under Sir Cramner’s protection and tutelage, she continued to improve her skills – though she made her only rule which was to steal only from those people she thought deserved it – and she eventually became one of London’s most notorious jewel thieves.

Thirty years later, Sir Cramner is died and the company bought by corporate raider Owen Brace. Another defining moment for Kick. With Sir Cramner gone, any sense of obligation Kick feels toward Ballantine is gone and she plans to retire to France with all possible speed. Those plans derail by the unwilling fascination she feels for her new boss. Owen needs her help if he’s to succeed in the elite and snooty auction house world. Now Kick is playing the Henry Higgins role, and is astonished at how much she’s enjoying it.

This is a quick read, but by the second half there’s both too little and too much content. The too little comes by way of character development. In terms of the romance that occurs, though Kick is a fifty-something woman, this is chick-lit all the way. Kick falls into a relationship with Owen but isn’t convinced he’s the kind of person she wants to be with. It’s interesting for a bit, but then becomes fairly rote. Is he the one? Is he scheming against her? What is his agenda? All questions that occur to Kick at some point or another are ones familiar to most readers, but none gets as much time or space as necessary. And so the characterizations and relationships suffer.

The too much comes with Kick’s secret career and the plotting devoted to her capers. Kellogg obviously did research for this novel, because it shows in the (at times) pages-long descriptions of how the stealing and replacing of jewels takes place. Interesting for a bit, not so much after the umpteenth lecture. The plot, by book’s end, also includes (but is not limited to) murder, faux antiques, corporate accounting shenanigans, art theft (not to be confused with the jewel thefts), a cache of czarist jewels, and the list goes on. And on. Until there is too little time to be interested in Kick at all.

A book titled Brilliant certainly gives a reviewer an easy opening. If the book lives up to its title then the author was, um, okay, brilliant, in her title choice. And with a jewel thief protagonist, I’m sure the phrases could flow. Her prose shines, her characters are as hard edged as diamonds, the dialogue glitters, etc. You’re probably getting the idea. If the novel is terrible then the use of this title opens a whole other world of possibilities in scathing review puns and putdowns. In reality Brilliant falls somewhere in between the two extremes and all the puns and quips are pretty useless. Of course, that didn’t stop me from throwing a few in here – I just couldn’t resist. Chalk it up to that title.