Guilty Pleasures

August 22, 2011
In Cutler’s intriguing third mystery featuring Kent antiques dealer Lina Townend (after February 2011’s Ring of Guilt), Lina can’t say no to the request of the local vicar, Robin Levitt, to help out at a church fete. When someone snatches an old silver snuffbox from the bric-a-brac stall and runs, Lina and Robin give chase. The thief drops the snuffbox before escaping, but Lina takes a painful spill on the churchyard gravel. Soon, Lina has to deal with more serious crimes—attacks, some of them fatal, on friends and acquaintances. Even her older mentor and business partner, Griff, gets beaten by a mysterious stranger. The police question her after a suspect caught on CCTV looks a lot like Lina herself. In the end, against Lina’s wishes, Griff consults Detective Inspector Morris, her now married ex-boyfriend, who lends some romantic interest to this enchanting mix of murder and antiques.

September 1, 2011

A vintage snuffbox is almost nicked at a church party. And then...

While antiques divvy Lina Townend mans the bric-a-brac table at the party to raise funds to restore St. Jude's in Kenninge, her doppelganger argues with a man in a cashmere turtleneck and somebody tries to pocket a valuable 17th-century sterling snuffbox. Thinking it had been donated by mistake, Lina takes the treasure home to safeguard it. A pair of ersatz coppers promptly begin spying on the shop she runs with her mentor, aging gay sophisticate Griff. Then somebody breaks into the shop and rigs their car with two tracking devices. Meanwhile, Robin the vicar takes himself off on a retreat; his pregnant inamorata is so overwrought she can barely handle the police investigation under her command; and Lina's married ex-boyfriend Morris, a mainstay of the Met's Fine Arts Squad, pops around to jiggle her hormones again. Two copies of the snuffbox come on the market. Lina keeps getting mistaken for her doppelganger. The man in the cashmere turtleneck goes missing. And Lina's sire, Lord Elham, takes time from swilling champers and forging masterpieces to acknowledge his many by-blows, two of whom strongly resemble Lina. One old codger will die and another will be sent to intensive care before the doppelganger will be identified, the vicar will plan his wedding, Lina will brace herself for Morris's move to Paris, Griff will serve homemade lemonade in the garden and the vintage snuffbox will be sent to Victoria and Albert.

Lina's vocabulary lapses are irritating, and Griff calls her "dear" far too many times to be endearing. This entry, more heavy-handed than Ring of Guilt (2011), suggests that it may be time to give the series a rest.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2011
While volunteering at a fete to help out her vicar friend, Robin, Lina Townend finds a dirty snuff box she believes is valuable. She buys the box with the understanding that she will donate the additional cash she receives to the church. Then someone promptly tries to steal the box. Lina manages to foil the thief, but after her business partner, Griff, is injured in a second robbery attempt, it becomes clear that the thief will stop at nothing to retrieve the box. Complicating matters, Lina has a look-alike who has been seen arguing with a man right before he was murdered, and some valuable silver has been stolen from a church that Lina had visited. The police think Lina committed both crimes, so she, along with her boyfriend, DI Morris, works to clear herself and solve the mystery of the snuff box. Lina is an appealing character who, rescued from the streets and trained in the antiques business by Griff, is still learning to fit into her new role.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)