Author: Tracy Gardner
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643859064
Crooked Lane Books
304 Pages
$26.52; $13.99 Amazon
June 7, 2022
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Thanks to Aunt Midge's unlikely friendship with Nicholas Pennington, The Duke of Valle Charme, Avery Ayers and her associates at Antiques and Artifacts Appraised head off to their most glamorous assignment yet -- cataloguing and appraising the contents of a castle-like mansion on the Hudson River. But regal splendor becomes a backdrop to mayhem when the precious Viktor Petrova timepiece disappears -- and housekeeper Suzanne Vick plummets from a parapet to her death.
Avery, her dad William, and colleagues Micah Abbott and Sir Robert Lane soon learn that Suzanne's predecessor also met with an untimely end. Further, the housekeeper's suspicious demise coincides with Avery's discovery that many of the Duke's most priceless heirlooms have been replaced by fakes.
Detective Art Smith lends his expertise, but the suspect list encompasses the Duke's entire retinue -- including his family. Could the killer be someone intimately familiar with the Pennington estate, such as caretaker couple Ira and Lynn Hoffman, the Penningtons' chauffeur Roderick, or even one of the heirs to the Pennington fortune?
Then the duke himself is injured in an inexplicable accident, and the clock swiftly ticks toward a reckoning with a cold-blooded killer. A criminal mastermind is making a desperate bid for ill-gotten riches...can Avery bring the culprit to justice before her time is up?
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Avery Ayers is an antique appraiser, along with her father William, and partners Micah Abbott and Sir Robert Lane. They've been given the opportunity to appraise and inventory items throughout Pennington Manor, one of the duke's homes. During the appraisals, Avery and Micah discover that there are fakes among them. But before she can bring the duke this news, housekeeper Suzanne Vick falls to her death from the top of the manor.
Now there is a murder investigation, and Avery realizes that it could be any one of the household who pushed her. Joining the group as part of their team is Detective Art Smith -- one time boyfriend of Avery's who wants to be so again -- and Avery is beginning to realize that she wants that, also. But their relationship issues are on the back burner as they work to discover a killer -- any way they can -- before the murderer does so again.
Now they're wondering if the death is tied into the thefts, and if the previous housekeeper was part of it, too. But with a household of disgruntled employees, and the duke's sons not happy, either, who is the killer? Time is not on their side, but a killer lurks close by, and Avery may find herself in a permanent time out...
This is the second book in the series and I must say that I enjoyed it quite as much as the first. It had a mystery that began almost at the beginning, which gave us time to garner clues and look for the killer. But with the appraisers finding that many of the items have been stolen and replaced with fakes, they also have to find out who the originals were sold to, and who the party was who sold them, This is going to take time, and in the meanwhile, Art and Avery are paired to quietly check out the household for clues.
In the subplots, Avery's sister Tilly is home from England with a secret to tell and a big decision to make; neither of which she is willing to come forward with as yet. Avery is training for a 26 mile marathon, the longest she's ever done; and her relationship with Art is one again moving forward after he decides to open up to her. Then there is a very cute addition, and one I love.
But I do love learning about antiques. If I could afford it, I would have them in every room instead of just the ones my parents left me. They have so much history to tell, and I love hearing about it as they go. (Others might not, but I do).
When it gets toward the end, Avery and Art are close to finding the killer, but then an incident occurs that almost stops them until it is finally all put together and why. One may never know what pushes a killer to do what they do, but it is sad in a way, yet a deranged mind will never be able to reason. I did love this book as much as the first. Ms. Gardner is indeed a talented writer and I look forward to the next in the series. Highly recommended.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Tracy Gardner's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/tracy-gardner/
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