Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book (LP Available)
ISBN#: 9781496727091
Kensington Publishing
320 Pages
$6.79; $5.99 Amazon
April 28, 2020
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The seaside New England town of Greyborne Harbor is home to many grand estates, including the Queen Anne Victorian Addie inherited from her great aunt. Now one of those mansion's is holding an estate sale, which is just what the bookshop owner needs to replenish her supply of rare editions -- even if the house is rumored to be haunted. Assisting an overwhelmed insurance appraiser with the inventory, Addie discovers an 1887 magazine containing Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, which she estimates to be worth over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
But when Addie later finds the appraiser dead in the estate's private library, with the door bolted from the inside, and the priceless edition missing, it's a mystery worthy of the Great Detective himself. She's certain the death and the robbery are connected -- but who, other than a ghost who can walk through walls, could have gotten in to do the deed? It's up to Addie to find the key to the crime -- before she's the next one cornered by a killer...
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Addie Greyborne owns a bookstore that deals in both new and rare books, and lives in a Queen Anne Victorian she inherited from her late aunt. She wants to attend an estate sale, but her friends don't want her to go, insisting the place is haunted. Refusing to believe in ghosts, Addie does go and meets an old friend who's conducting the auction. While there, she runs into her cousin whom she hasn't seen in ten years, and also offers to help appraise the remaining books when the hired appraiser seems to be over her head.
During the appraisal, Addie discovers several rare first editions, especially a magazine from 1887 that carried A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's public introduction to Sherlock Holmes. She tells her friend Blake, who's running the sale, and leaves. The next day she returns for the private sale, coming early to help set up, and she and Blake discover the appraiser in the vast library -- dead. She also notices the books are missing and cheap replicas have been put in their stead. The police don't think it's a murder, but Addie knows it must be, and the theft is connected somehow.
It doesn't help that police chief Marc Chandler, who was recently involved with Addie, has returned and he's treating Addie like a suspect in the thefts and, if it's proven, murder. Addie has only herself and her friends to depend on to solve this crime, and it will take all of her wits to get her out of becoming a part of the past herself...
This is the fourth book in the series, and I will say that I liked it much better than the first three. Addie isn't so petulant in this one; she's beginning to act like the adult that she is, so that's a positive change in the books. However, I really didn't care for Marc in this one. Instead of thinking logically, which means taking into consideration everything he knows about Addie personally, he acts like a total jerk in most of the book, and it seemed to be nothing more than revenge-laden. He never went to bat for her once, and he knows her as a person. She's helped him solve murders in the past, and he should have taken that into consideration and at least listened to her theories as being plausible. It was as if one Marc went on vacation and a different one returned. It didn't make me happy, to say the least.
At any rate, the plot was a very good one, with red herrings thrown everywhere and the true killer not being shown until close to the end. When it all came together, it did so nicely, with Addie giving us a rather humorous conclusion to it all. In the end, I enjoyed the story and so will continue on with the series.
More on Lauren Elliott's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/lauren-elliott/
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