*Summary and Spoilers*
Main Characters:
Evie Porter/ Lucca Marino- A con-artist who works for Mr Smith
Ryan Sumner- Evie's “boyfriend”, the mark
Devon- Tech guru who works with Lucca
Rachel Murray- lawyer and long-time friend of Ryan’s
George- Delivers messages for Mr Smith
Amy Holder- murder victim
Why you should read or listen:
I've never listened to a book like this before. It kept me questioning which characters I could trust. The book gives details about different jobs Lucca completed in the past that tie the story together brilliantly. This summary is longer than most but it does not include all of those details and characters.
But if you don't have time or need a refresher, continue reading!
Quick & Dirty Summary:
*Contains Spoilers*
Lucca Marino is a con-artist who is using the alias, Evie Porter, to get information on Ryan Sumner. Things start to go wrong on this job and Lucca realizes she is being set-up by her boss, "Mr Smith". She is accused of being involved in the murder of Amy Holder. With the help of her friend Devon, Lucca proves her innocence. They also work with Amy, who is not dead, to uncover Mr Smith's true identity. Mr Smith is George, the messenger. Lucca hands him over to a dangerous client that he betrayed. Lucca keeps the Evie Porter alias and stays with Ryan, who she has fallen in love with.
Complete Summary:
Lucca Marino is a con-artist. She works for “Mr Smith”, takes on alias, and steals information for Mr Smith’s clients. Lucca doesn’t know Mr Smith’s true identity and has never met him. She receives her information through PO Boxes and Mr Smith’s messenger George. Lucca’s was not able to get the information from her last assignment, so id nervous was she receives a new one.
Lucca is hired to assume the identity of Evie Porter and to woo Ryan Sumner, a very wealthy southern man. Her job is to get information from Ryan’s company. Lucca has managed to make Ryan fall in love with “Evie” and they move in together. She has found information on Ryan's company but still can’t find exactly what Mr Smith needs.
Lucca thinks are going well with the job, until she goes to a Kentucky Derby Party. Ryan introduces “Evie” to his old friend and his date. His date is named Lucca Marino and has the exact same background as the real Lucca. Lucca panics because she doesn’t want to get caught by Ryan. She has to figure out why this woman has assumed Lucca’s identity and if she knows that “Evie” is the real Lucca Marino.
Lucca calls Mr Smith to inform him about the other “Lucca”. He let’s her know that she has been sent to ensure that the real Lucca does not make a mistake like she did on her last job. Lucca invites James and fake Lucca over for dinner. After dinner, she asks her questions to throw her off and eventually gets her to admit she works for Mr Smith and sent images to him from Lucca’s room. After, “Lucca” and James leave dinner, they die in a car accident. Lucca Marino is believed to be dead, but the real Lucca Marino is alive under the alias of Evie Porter.
Lucca breaks into the room that James and fake Lucca were staying in and goes through her things. She finds her envelope from Mr Smith. It told fake Lucca to search Lucca/Evie’s room and look for items that don’t belong. Lucca arranges to meet Devon, a trusted companion and tech wizard, to discuss fake Lucca’s death. Devon thinks the car accident was arranged to take fake Lucca out. Devon recommends that Lucca leave her Evie alias because she’s in danger. She decides that she wants to stay and figure out why she was assigned to Ryan.
The next day, Lucca gets a text from Devon that says 911, but she sees it too late and is taken in by the cops for questioning about the death of Amy Holder in Atlanta. Lucca knows that she’s been compromised by Mr Smith because Evie Porter should have no record of ever meeting Amy Holder. Lucca interacted with Amy when she was working under a different alias.
Lucca requests and hires Rachel, Ryan’s friend, to be her lawyer. Under lawyer/ client confidentiality, Lucca tells Rachel that she isn’t really Evie Porter and that she knew Amy Holder under a different alias, Regina Hale. The police have a picture of “Evie Porter” at the scene of Amy Holder’s death. Lucca knows that this has been leaked to the police by Mr Smith. Lucca uses a blackmailed contact from a previous job to get released from jail. Before she leaves, she is photographed and fingerprinted. The police have a witness warrant for her in Atlanta and are requiring her and Rachel to be there by Monday at 8:30am.
When Lucca returns to Ryan’s home, she finds a paper swan (a message from Mr Smith). Inside are compromising pictures of “Evie” and Amy Holder. There is also a picture of her leaving a bank. Lucca calls the number listed on the bottom of the picture. Mr Smith believes that on a previous job, Lucca got the information from Amy Holder and hid it in a safety deposit box at the bank. Lucca was supposed to gather this information for a powerful client, Victor Connelly. Victor is angry that the information was never collected. Lucca assures Mr Smith that all the information was lost in the fire that killed Amy Holder. Mr Smith doesn’t believe her and sets up a time and place to meet in Atlanta to get whatever is in the safety deposit box.
Lucca explains to Rachel that she needs to deal with some things on her own, but will meet her in Atlanta by 8:30am on Monday. Rachel argues with her but eventually gives in. Ryan is not so easy to convince and insists he rides with “Evie”. Lucca hasn’t told Ryan the truth about who she is, was, or her job. He suspects that she’s lying but is willing to stay by her, so she lets him.
Their first stop is a gas station, so that Lucca can drop off a note for Devon to keep him in the loop. Their second stop is to Old Miss. Lucca leaves Ryan at a bar and walks to the home of Mitch Cameron. In the past, he hired Mr Smith and Lucca to get him out of a football contract. Lucca places a device on Mitch’s rocking chair that will give Devon access to his phone. Lucca pisses off Mitch in hopes that he will contact Mr Smith. After Lucca leaves, Mitch contacts Mr Smith. Devon uses this information to help him identify Mr Smith.
Next, Ryan and Lucca go to Nashville and stay at a motel. Lucca meets up with Governor Andrew Marshall. She did him a huge favor years ago and double checks that he still owes her a favor, if she needs one. George, Mr Smith’s messenger, sees Lucca and warns her that Mr Smith is getting irritated and she’s in danger. Devon and Lucca meet up at a hotel. All of their plans are falling into place. Mr Smith overheard the conversation between Andrew Marshall and Lucca. Mr Smith thinks that Lucca is holding back information about Andrew Marshall and Victor Connelly.
Devon still hasn’t identified who Mr Smith is but he’s getting close. Devon hacks into the Atlanta PD database to find out what evidence they have against Lucca. The two of them make a plan. Lucca returns to the motel where Ryan offers to go get pizza for Lucca while she showers. She needs to get medicine for her headache for the shower so she walks to a vending machine, but hears Ryan talking to someone. He’s talking to George. George gives something to Ryan.
Lucca wakes up early to look for what George gave Ryan. It’s the last batch of documents that Lucca sent to Mr Smith. Lucca is confused. Does Ryan work for Mr Smith? Is he Mr Smith? Why was she sent to get documents about Ryan that are being given to Ryan? She can’t trust Ryan, so she leaves the motel without him and gets ahold of Devon.
Lucca makes it to Atlanta for her meeting with Rachel and Atlanta PD. The police have all of the photographs that Mr Smith sent to them. Lucca is carrying an unconscious Amy Holder into her house. Lucca is at the hotel where Amy died. There a video of Lucca lighting a match in a hotel room, where the fire started. All of this looks bad for Lucca, but the police and Rachel think that Lucca is Evie Porter. So “Evie” tells the police that all of the pictures are of Lucca Marino, who died in a car accident a couple days ago. She uses an old contact as an alibi. So “Evie”, the real Lucca, is set free. Now, she needs to deal with Mr Smith.
The ending
George is waiting for Lucca after the meeting with the police. He walks Lucca to the bank with the safety deposit box. When George opens the box, it only contains a white paper swan. Lucca reveals that George is Mr Smith. His real name is Christopher Smith. He wants the information that Amy Holder stole from him. Amy was hired to find information on Victor Connolly and his crimes, but what she really found was evidence that Mr Smith was double-crossing and stealing from Victor Connolly. Amy shared this with Lucca and Lucca shared it with Victor once she knew Mr Smith’s true identity. Victor Connolly is waiting outside of the bank for Mr Smith.
FOUR YEARS AGO
Mr Smith set up a test for his employees. All the con-artists were tasked with stealing a famous painting from a wealthy man. Lucca won the test and was the first to retrieve the painting. After the test, Lucca asked Devon to get in touch with all the other people who work for Mr Smith. She wanted to meet her co-workers and make connections. Devon was only able to track down one. Mr Smith killed all the other employees who tried to steal the painting and failed. The only employees that remained were Lucca and Amy Holder. Amy was allowed to live because she was the only other person who found the room the painting was hidden in. Lucca tracked down Amy and they created a plan to find and destroy Mr Smith.
Amy found out about Mr Smith double-crossing Victor. She pretended to go rogue on a job and Mr Smith sent Lucca to watch Amy and get her information. Lucca pretended to kill Amy in the hotel room, but actually it was a corpse that Devon had procured. Once Mr Smith thought Amy was dead, Lucca went rogue by stopping at the bank for a safety deposit box. Every step Lucca made after “killing” Amy, was to get Mr Smith to reveal himself.
The aftermath
Devon found out that Mr Smith used Ryan for some deliveries, but he wasn’t involved in any other parts of Mr Smith’s operation. So three months later Lucca, who is now officially Evie, goes to see Ryan. Ryan admits that he didn’t suspect Evie was stealing information from him. Mr Smith gave him a heads-up about information being sold. When Ryan realized it was Evie, he was confused because all of the information had been doctored to look real but it wasn’t real. Evie admits everything she did and explains that she changed the information so that he wouldn’t lose his business. She tells Ryan about her whole past and he tells her about his. Ryan and Evie stay together. “Miss Smith” starts a new business with Amy and Devon.