ART. CROOKS. BOOKS.
ART. CROOKS. BOOKS.
The Kate Hamilton Mysteries
by Connie Berry
Kate Hamilton, a widow with two college-age children, is an American antiques dealer, a divvy, with a gift for solving crimes and the disconcerting ability to sense the atmosphere in which an object of great age once existed—as if the joy or sadness or fear had seeped into the joints and crevices along with the dust and grime. These experiences Kate files away under the category of Unexplained Things like déja vu and why men can never find anything in a refrigerator. She owns a thriving antiques and appraising business in the Midwest, but since meeting Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, her heart has felt increasingly at home in the small, perfect Suffolk village of Long Barston.
The Kate Hamilton Mysteries
The Kate Hamilton Mysteries are set in the UK and feature American antiques dealer and appraiser Kate Hamilton, who along with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, investigates crimes involving fine art and antiques. Tom values Kate’s professional expertise and her ability to notice details and recognize patterns. Kate and Tom are in a serious relationship, although they have yet to solve the thorny problem of two careers on two very separate continents.
A Collection of Lies: Kate Hamilton and DI Tom Mallory are honeymooning in Devon when a local history museum asks them to trace the provenance of a bloodstained dress said to belong to a murderous Victorian lacemaker. Exactly Kate’s kind of mystery. Until the donor of the dress, a man who lives like a Victorian gentleman, is found dead in a pool of blood. As Kate and Tom race to find the murderer, it becomes clear that old secrets can be deadly—and this killer isn’t going to come quietly.
A Grave Deception: When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the site asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer.
Meanwhile, the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.
The Intrepid Traveler Series
by MA Monnin
When former private banker Stefanie Adams vacations in Greece, vowing to cast off her need to plan seven steps ahead and instead embrace opportunities as they come, little does she know that she’ll become involved in international intrigue, theft and murder. The experience reveals her knack for investigation, burning desire to keep artifacts out of the hands of unscrupulous collectors, and a new-found love of foreign travel. Propelled into a new way of life, Stefanie has to watch her back.
As handsome German Thomas Burkhardt warns, where greed leads, murder follows. If you’ve enjoyed the recent show, “The Mallorca Files,” this series is for you.
Death in St. George’s. When Stefanie and Thomas meet in Bermuda for time alone away from the demands of the Artifact Retrieval Team that Thomas heads, their romantic rendezvous is waylaid by an archaeologist who requests their help to recover an emerald bracelet that’s been stolen from his site.
Thomas is reluctant, but Stefanie can’t resist the lure of Spanish gold. Then one of the archaeologists is murdered, and they find themselves on the suspect list. Spanish gold isn’t the only thing uncovered. Secrets can be deadly, and Stefanie and Thomas must find the killer before it’s too late.
Death in Luxor. Stefanie and Thomas are in Egypt, heading off trouble at the opening ceremonies of Egypt’s Grand Egyptian Museum, where anonymous notes threaten the glittering ‘Gold of the Pharaohs’ special exhibit.
Stefanie hopes to fulfill her dream of visiting the fabulous tomb of Queen Nefertari, ‘She For Whom The Sun Shines’. But her plans change when a thief resorts to murder to possess a golden relic of ancient Egyptian royalty.
Trailing their suspects up the Nile through temples and tombs, Stefanie and Thomas race against time to recover the stolen gold before it is secreted out of Egypt and another victim falls in the thief’s deadly game.
The Big Picture Series
by Lane Stone
Emma Kelly may be the most unconventional protagonist you’ll find all year. She keeps her eye on The Big Picture and she’ll do anything to right a decades old wrong.
The Final Book in the Trilogy!
Crimes and Sins.
After exploring art vandalism in
The Collector and forgery in
The Canvas, Stone now delves into
a third art crime: theft. This story
brings the notorious triad of art
crimes full circle, confronting the
darkest depths of criminal ambition
within the art world. The powerful and unforgettable conclusion of this gripping series is not to be missed.
Venice, 1612. A golden age for women of talent, beauty and ambition, such as the elite courtesan, Belladonna, and the rabbi’s scholarly daughter, Diana. In “The Gallery of Beauties”, the unlikely pair are brought together by an artist, for his commission to paint the portraits of the most beautiful women of Venice. The two women become embroiled in the schemes of powerful men, and must rely on each other’s wits and courage as they attempt to unmask a murderer.
The friendship between the courtesan and the rabbi’s daughter takes the two women down a different path in “The Courtesan’s Secret”, when the courtesan’s past arrives in Venice to challenge Belladonna’s heart and threaten her life.
Nearly two years have passed, and at last, Belladonna has been united with her long lost love, Isaak, on the island of Jamaica in “The Courtesan’s Pirate”. Fate intervenes when a hurricane hits the island, and Isaak is blown off his ship. Belladonna must escape the marauding Spanish and the lawless pirates who patrol the Caribbean while she tries to find him. When she discovers Isaak has been captured by the Spanish and is being taken to Spain for execution, she decides to return to Venice, where she has the wealth and influence to marshal the forces to rescue him. But upon her return, she finds her power has diminished, and she finds herself in the midst of an intrigue that threatens her position and her ability to save Isaak.
The Venice Beauties series by Nina Wachsman
