Thursday, September 26, 2019

A Legacy of Murder

American antique dealer Kate Hamilton plans to spend the holiday season with her daughter Christine who is an intern at a stately, but crumbling home in Long Barton, England. In A Legacy of Murder by Connie Berry, Kate has an ulterior motive and it takes the shape of handsome police Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. (A Legacy of Murder will be published by Crooked Lane on October 8.)

Finchley Hall has been the ancestral home of Lady Barbara's family for centuries. She has scrambled to make repairs, but the crumbling house has almost outstripped her ability to raise funds. Now she is planning to display the Finchley Hoard, the legendary treasure trove stolen from the family in an uprising, but eventually returned. 

Interns, including Kate's daughter Christine, have been coordinating the exhibit and one in particular has been placing the various objects in the display and preparing the catalog. When Tabitha is found dead in a pond, her death brings back memories of other strange deaths surrounding the Hoard, including the previous coordinator of the exhibit who was murdered 23 years ago. Coincidentally or not, Lady Barbara's son disappeared about the same time. Many thought he had murdered the woman, but he fled to Venezuela. 

It is soon learned that Tabitha was pregnant leading some to think she killed herself. After an autopsy, DI Mallory proclaims it was murder and wonders if Lady Barbara's son has returned. Lady Barbara asks Kate to take over for Tabitha and make sure the exhibit of the Hoard goes off on schedule. 

As Kate pores over the organizational paperwork left behind by Tabitha, she begins to see some discrepancies in what has been included in the exhibit and what has not been included. With the assistance of an elderly local antique dealer, Kate discovers what is amiss and soon solves the murders. 

An excellent second book in the series and I look forward to what happens next with Kate and Tom and their long distance romance. 


Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley. 

1 comment:

Connie Berry said...

Thanks, Christine. I'm so glad you like this new episode in Kate's life!