Genre: Mystery
Digital Book, Audiobook, MP3
Alibi Publishing
232 Pages
May 30, 2017
✮✮
Mulbridge House stood, silent and decaying, deep in the woods at the heart of Oakwood, Ohio, long before the passing of Augusta Mulbridge. Yet suddenly everyone in town seems to have a stake in its fate: the greedy heirs, eager to tear it down for a tidy profit; the local preservationists, determined to maintain it an an historic site; the angry neighbors, staunchly opposed to the construction of a modern subdivision. Even Charley Carpenter is forced to admit that her beloved shop, Old Hat Vintage Fashions, could use an infusion of the estate's treasures.
The clock is ticking. The wrecking ball is ready to swing. All that stands between Mulbridge House and oblivion is one final vote. That, and murder...
The trouble begins when Charley walks into auctioneer Calvin Prescott's office to find her cherished family friend crumpled on the floor. Detective Marcus Trenault quickly connects his death to a string of increasingly violent burglaries plaguing Oakwood. But when Charley uncovers a link to a massive land swindle worth millions, not to mention a drug ring operating out of the manor's abandoned outbuildings, that theory crumbles faster than Mulbridge House. Now Charley's racing to catch a killer before everything falls apart.
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Charley Carpenter owns a vintage clothing store, and is making a deal with Calvin Prescott to buy clothing from the estate of Augusta Mulbridge. But while there, she hears and sees an argument between Millie Peache and Calvin - it seems Millie thinks Augusta made a will leaving the home to the preservation society, not to her children. The unfortunate thing is that Millie is insistent it's inside a book that is to be sold at the sale, but which one? Before she's evicted, Charley also hears the sniping remarks by Augusta's daughter Holland.
When Charley is able to pick up the clothing from Calvin's she finds him dead, and immediately calls the police - her boyfriend, Marcus Trenault. Since Calvin was also a family friend, she has a personal interest in finding his killer. But Marcus warns her to stay out of the investigation and let him do his job.
Charley, however, isn't about to let it go. She decides that while she conducts her own investigation, if she finds anything of interest she'll tell Marcus, and he'll be grateful that she's helped solve the murder, right? But what Charley doesn't figure on is that the killer - or killers - have a vested interest in finding the supposed will and aren't about to let a little problem like Charley get in the way, even if they have to kill her to keep her quiet...
First off, let me say that this is not a cozy mystery. There are (although not graphic) sex scenes and quite a bit of swearing. Those things alone exclude it from the genre; but it wouldn't make a difference if I enjoyed the book otherwise. While this book was written well, it could have been so much better. There was something niggling at me throughout the book about Charley, and I was trying to figure it out while reading.
Finally it was Charley herself who figured it out for me: she states at one point that she was determined to investigate on her own, but reinforced Marc's opinion that she was unfit to take part in police business and he wouldn't discuss his cases with her anymore. Say what??? She's not a police officer and isn't fit to take part in police business! She's the owner of a vintage clothing shop. He shouldn't be discussing cases with her. She acted like it was a contest, and she was determined to solve the murder before he did - just so she could get him to admit she was better at it than him. (Talk about self-esteem issues).
In fact, the police rather come off as buffoons with Charley feeding them clues because they're too dumb to figure it out. Not once did Marc say something like, "We already know that, Charley," but he always seemed dumbfounded when she put things together. Perhaps she should be the officer and he should run the store (because it's certain she's not doing it anyway). It appeared as if the only reason they're together is so that Charley can solve his cases.
While I like strong women in books (who doesn't?), I don't like women who think they have to one-up their police officer boyfriends. After all, in real life do you think that police officers allow their wives and girlfriends to 'take part' in police business? Not gonna happen unless they're officers themselves. Yes, this bothered me. Not once did it seem that she was trying to solve Calvin's murder because of Calvin; it honestly seemed like she was doing it for the reasons mentioned above. And that is why I found her rather unlikable.
What you have with Marc and Charley is immovable object meets irresistible force - but in this case, 'nothing's gotta give'. They're like tigers circling each other to see who's got domination, and that's not a good thing. He's controlling and jealous, she's manipulative and narcissistic. A toxic relationship. They fight and yell at each other. Yeah, that's a good relationship all around. I can't see it lasting a year unless they get help. It's called emotional and mental abuse, people. It's not a good thing. Neither is making a joke of rape.
Unfortunately, there were also too many characters, and I found myself asking 'Who?' several times throughout the book. Also, while she's a business owner, she's out solving crimes. I think she really does believe herself to be Daphne from Scooby Doo. Supposedly she can pay an employee a decent starting wage, but where is her money coming from? There wasn't a single customer, she never spent time in her store, which was odd; and she had no problem committing crimes (we're talking felonies, folks) in the course of her 'investigation', and dragging her friends in on the mix at times (who were, for the most part, stereotypical). Not to mention the eighteen-year-old who thinks the bad guy with a gun shooting at her is fun and exciting and wants to chase him down and a 'sharpshooter cop' who can't hit the guy shooting at him (huh?) among others.
But what saved the book and gave it two stars was the ending - which was quite a rush and put together well. It was riveting, believable and satisfying; unfortunately it wasn't enough to save the rest of the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Antique-House-Murders-Oakwood-Mystery-ebook/dp/B01ILZPRPI/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2261775739
More on Leslie Nagel's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/n/leslie-nagel/
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