Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com. – Barbara Ellis

“Fagin the Thief,” by Allison Epstein (Doubleday, 2025)

Character reimagining has given us Elphaba from “Wicked” (“The Wizard of Oz”) and “James” (“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”). Epstein presents the backstory of Jacob Fagin, Dickens’ much-loathed villain in “Oliver Twist.” Alternating between 1793 and 1838 in Victorian London, this story humanizes Fagin and shows him to be a somewhat sympathetic character, although still a manipulative mentor to young thieves.

The or

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