Tilda in Jennifer Crusie's Faking It is a reluctant con artist, as is Letty Potts in Connie Brockway's The Bridal Season. (Both romances)
E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks has a heroine who is a prankster in boarding school who felt very like a con artist to me. (And she enjoys it! Unlike most female thieves/con artists/liars/etc I can think of)
Books that have unreliable narrators but not because the narrator is deliberately lying:
I feel the narrator in Rebecca is very unreliable (in fact, everyone is debating the book in my comments right now!), but I am not sure if she canonically is?
Claudia Gray's Evernight has an unreliable narrator. (Actually, I feel it is less of an unreliable narrator and more of a narrative cheat, but YMMV?)
Diana Wynne Jones' The Merlin Conspiracy
But overall my personal theory is that there are even fewer female con artists than female thieves and spies and assassins (whyyy?!) because "con artist" implies some measure of enjoyment of the con and the game, which most people seem to be reluctant to assign to women because of the morality? At least in romances, they always make sure you know the heroine is doing it against her will! or not to hurt people! or because she is in a tight spot! as opposed to actually liking it.
no subject
E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks has a heroine who is a prankster in boarding school who felt very like a con artist to me. (And she enjoys it! Unlike most female thieves/con artists/liars/etc I can think of)
Books that have unreliable narrators but not because the narrator is deliberately lying:
I feel the narrator in Rebecca is very unreliable (in fact, everyone is debating the book in my comments right now!), but I am not sure if she canonically is?
Claudia Gray's Evernight has an unreliable narrator. (Actually, I feel it is less of an unreliable narrator and more of a narrative cheat, but YMMV?)
Diana Wynne Jones' The Merlin Conspiracy
But overall my personal theory is that there are even fewer female con artists than female thieves and spies and assassins (whyyy?!) because "con artist" implies some measure of enjoyment of the con and the game, which most people seem to be reluctant to assign to women because of the morality? At least in romances, they always make sure you know the heroine is doing it against her will! or not to hurt people! or because she is in a tight spot! as opposed to actually liking it.