Old World Murder

August 15, 2010

Ernst, a veteran of YA fiction, introduces her first adult heroine in this cozy, small-town mystery.

Chloe Ellefson is used to unraveling the secrets of the past. As a curator of living history, Chloe interprets antiques and puts them in context. After a bad breakup, Chloe's left Switzerland to come home, where she begins a new job at Old World Wisconsin, depicting the history of immigrant communities. On her very first day, she's greeted by an impossible demand. Elderly widow Berget Lundquist, who donated a prized family heirloom, a Norwegian ale bowl, decades ago, is desperate to get it back. Chloe can't even begin to find it in the chaos she's inherited, but promises to look into it. Distraught, Mrs. Lundquist drives off, has instant heart failure and wraps her Buick around a tree. Chloe, between trying to get the archival supplies she needs and managing her intimidatingly competent intern, does her best to locate the ale bowl, but it's apparently disappeared. Handsome local cop Roelke McKenna is maybe a bit too interested in the ale bowl—or maybe he's just interested in Chloe. What seems like a niggling loose end becomes deadly serious when Mrs. Lundquist's only friend is found dead in his home. Can Chloe and Roelke stop bickering long enough to solve the crime? And what's so special about this ale bowl?

A gentle puzzler best appreciated by amateur genealogists and folk artists. The slow pace will bore most others.

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September 1, 2010

Chloe Ellefson's first day on the job as a collections curator at Old World Wisconsin, a living history museum, turns into a disaster when she angers a security guard and refuses to return a donated family heirloom to an elderly woman, who minutes later dies in a mysterious car crash. VERDICT More focused on Chloe's unhappy past than on the crime in question and peppered with details of Norwegian collectibles, this series debut by an author of children's mysteries rolls out nicely for readers who like a cozy with a dab of antique lore. Jeanne M. Dams fans will like the ethnic background.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2010
Chloe Ellefson, coming off a bout of clinical depression, has just started her new job as curator of collections at Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor historical museum, when Berget Lundquist asks her to return a hand-painted Norwegian ale bowl she donated more than 20 years ago. Chloe brushes Lundquist off, promising to locate the bowl, but when the woman dies in an auto accident, Chloe feels she must keep her word. However, the bowl seems to be missing, so Chloe delves into the museums acquisition documents, the state historical societys records, and Mrs. Lundquists motivation for the return of the bowl, all of which lands her in the middle of a potentially deadly situation. Information on how to conduct historical research, background on Norwegian culture, and details about running an outdoor museum frame the engaging story of a woman devastated by a failed romantic relationship whose sleuthing helps her heal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)