Antiques seem to be the latest popular sub-category in the cosy mystery genre of books. And it seems that there’s a lot of interesting, historical research behind it all, which makes it quite understandable that it would make for some exciting plot-lines! In The Antique Store Detective, buried treasure, which always seemed quite fantastical, becomes a lot more realistic!

Blurb:

Meet Bella Winter. She loves vintage clothes, antiques and … solving crimes?

Bella Winter moved to charming Hope Eaton for some peace and quiet after quitting her busy city job. She delights in spending time in her little antique store on top of the hill, hunting for bargains at auctions, and getting to know everybody – because if there’s one thing Bella’s good at, it’s solving other people’s problems.

But her peaceful life is overturned when she finds eccentric local historian Professor Oliver Barton dead in the ruins of Raven Hall, a trowel lying near his outstretched hand. At first, Bella is like everyone else: saddened by a tragic accident. But then her colleague John asks her to dig deeper. Because the dead man gave him an ancient coin he should never have had, and John thinks he was murdered.

It turns out the professor was hunting for buried treasure in the middle of the night. But who would have wanted him dead? And who are the four suspicious women he told John about, calling them the queens of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades…?

As Bella delves into the case she uncovers a hoard of suspects: the lord of the manor, a secretive group of treasure hunters, the dead man’s desperate niece and her no-good son. And when another local historian takes a fatal tumble, she is certain that the answers lie in the antiques the professor stole. But can she solve the crime before someone tries to bury her?

My Review:

Bella Winter has exchanged big city life for the quiet village of Hope Eaton, where her father used to live. Although he’s now passed away, he’s fondly remembered by all who knew him as he was a police officer in the area for many years. He always said that Bella took after him when it came to being good at investigating and had hoped she’d follow in his footsteps, but she chose to go into the antiques business and uses her skills to delve into the history of the many interesting finds that she so often discovers for the antique shop that she now runs in the village.

But when she stumbles on the body of Professor Oliver Barton one morning, she realizes that she can’t simply ignore the fact that someone well-known to so many of the people in her immediate circle has been murdered. After becoming utterly frustrated at the lackadaisical attitude of the local policeman assigned to the case, Detective Barry Dixon, she decides to take matters into her own hands. So, with the help of her trusted circle of friends, Bella undertakes to use the skills her father always told her she had, and find out who the killer is.

There are a LOT of people involved here! Most of them seem to be somehow related or connected to Bella’s shop assistant John Jenks and I loved how they were all so invested not only in this case – because of John’s direct involvement – but also in each other’s lives in general.

Professor Barton was a bit of a renowned, eccentric historian in the area … what some might call a ‘loveable rogue’, by the sound of things. He was also a regular ‘Nighthawk’ – someone who trespasses on land belonging to others, and with the use of metal detectors, hunts for buried treasure! Of course, anything that is found is kept and/or sold by the finder. A nefarious activity indeed, and one that could get you involved with rather dubious characters, I’m sure! So it seems that the likeable Professor may not have been quite so squeaky clean as people thought!

When a second body is found, Bella and crew realize that things might be a bit more involved than they’d originally thought. The pace notches up a level as they race to discover who is murdering local historians, and why. What secrets are lurking in the serenity of Hope Eaton, and who is willing to kill to keep them?

I pictured the entire thing as a long-running TV series, and for some reason, it reminded me of the Yorkshire series, Heartbeat! Although this ran in the ’90’s (I think it ended in 2010 – but it runs on repeat on one of the TV stations sometimes), it was based in the ’60’s. It was classified as part of the ‘police procedural’ genre, but basically it was all about village life in Yorkshire at the time. And it just got me thinking … I know this is the first in a series focusing on Bella Winter, and I know this author has written 2 series already revolving around female protagonists. But I’d love Barry Dixon to have a series all of his own. This poor, long-suffering, somewhat bumbling police officer, who’s married to a vet and with four kids all under 7! I mean, come one … there are endless stories there!

I’m looking forward to returning to Hope Eaton soon in the next book in the series! Thanks to Bookouture for the Books-On-Tour!

Author Bio:

Clare Chase writes classic mysteries. Her aim is to take readers away from it all via some armchair sleuthing in atmospheric locations.

Her debut novel was shortlisted for Novelicious’s Undiscovered Award, as well as an EPIC award post-publication, and was chosen as a Debut of the Month by LoveReading. Murder on the Marshes (Tara Thorpe 1) was shortlisted for an International Thriller Writers award.

Like her heroines, Clare is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in settings as diverse as Littlehey Prison and the University of Cambridge, in her home city. She’s lived everywhere from the house of a lord to a slug-infested flat and finds the mid-terrace she currently occupies a good happy medium.

As well as writing, Clare loves family time, art and architecture, cooking, and of course, reading other people’s books.You can find Clare’s website and blog at www.clarechase.com

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