Vultures at Twilight

April 9, 2012
Set in the small town of Grenville, Conn., Atkins’s promising first in a new cozy series introduces widows Lillian Campbell and Ada Straus, both residents of a local retirement community. Before their good friend Evie died of Alzheimer’s disease, Lil and Ada tended her at home during her decline. Now Lil and Ada, who’s the executrix of Evie’s estate, face the daunting task of packing up her house and selling off her valuable antiques as well as “an extremely desirable work of American Impressionism” by Childe Hassam. But can they find a trustworthy dealer to help them? Meanwhile, someone shoots antiques dealer Paul Conroy in the forehead and cuts off one of Paul’s fingers—which somehow winds up in the bottom drawer of an old dresser up for auction. Soon Lil and Ada are involved in a baffling mystery that will keep readers turning the pages until the dramatic conclusion. Agent: Al Zuckerman, Writers House.

May 15, 2012
Generally scarifying Atkins (Mother's Milk, 2009, etc.) dials down the violence, though not the body count, in a demi-cozy that asks who's declared war on the antique dealers of Grenville, Conn. Mere days after Mildred Potts (of Aunt Millie's Attic) wrestles what proves to be the severed finger of the late Philip Conroy (Grenville Antiques) away from her Shih Tzu, Taffy, the police are called to Mildred's murder scene as well. In the meantime, Ada Strauss' friend Evie has died, presumably of natural causes, and Ada's been pressed into service as executrix. That chore brings Ada into contact with a wide range of antique jobbers and sellers, from Philip's partner, Tolliver Jacobs, to Rudy Caputo (McElroy's auction) to Mildred, very shortly before she gets murdered. So Ada and Lillian Campbell, her best buddy in Pilgrim's Progress nursing home, are right in the thick of things when decaying bodies that could be those of Carl McElroy and Rudy Caputo are discovered. Ordinarily there'd be no mystery about why someone would kill local antique dealers, especially since most of them seem little better than pond scum. But, as sometime narrator Lillian sagely asks Police Chief Hank Morgan, "Why would someone kill [Mildred], rob her, but then throw out, or give away all the jewelry" that turns up dangling from yew hedges and the like? The answer to this excellent question must lie deep in the past--perhaps in the death ten years ago of Philip's troubled sister Wendy. The killer is surprisingly lightweight for someone of Atkins' formidable ability to evoke evil. And Lillian isn't a patch on Jessica Fletcher, still less Miss Marple. First of a series.

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June 1, 2012

Charming little Grenville, CT, an antiques mecca, has been clobbered by a vicious crime wave. A killer is targeting antique dealers. Needless to say, the community is freaking out, and a state police detective, Mattie Perez, has been brought in to help the local force. Widows Ada and Lillian are neighbors and friends in the thick of things. They are valuable sources of local information, and Mattie gains their trust. Mattie notices that the antiques dealers have a system of inventory markups that might tie in with the murders. When Lil's persistently annoying crank phone calls take on a decidedly more sinister tone, it takes a village to figure out who is behind all the murder and mayhem in the harrowing finale. VERDICT This series debut fires on all cylinders, introducing a postmenopausal detective team whose dedicated sleuthing is enhanced by the members' growing love for one another. Atkins, a practicing psychiatrist, writes expertly styled psychological tension (Mother's Milk). [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/12.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Atkins, a practicing psychiatrist, combines a certain clinical grasp of his characters with a page-turner of a plot in this mystery set in small-town Connecticut. Lil Campbell and her friend Ada Strauss live in an upscale retirement community, Pilgrim's Progress, near the town of Grenville, an antiques mecca that attracts thousands of tourists each year with its auctions, multidealer antique malls, and one-off shops. But things turn ugly when a severed finger is found in a chest at an auction. No sooner do the police link the finger to a local antiques dealer whose decomposing body is found in a nearby river than the body of another dealer is found, and then another, and another. Feisty Lil and Ada turn small-town sleuths, but their amateur investigation soon gets them in over their heads. After a bit of a slow-burning start, Atkins' mystery quickly turns into a too-hot-to-handle thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The two leading ladies add sweetness and a bit of spice to this entertaining read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)