Antiques Frame

March 20, 2017
Camilla Cassuto, the not-quite-ex-wife of Brandy Borne’s significant other, police chief Tony Cassuto, has moved to Serenity, Iowa, in Allan’s appealing 11th mystery featuring Brandy and her mother, Vivian (after 2016’s Antiques Fate). Brandy and Vivian have recently finished filming their reality TV show, Antiques Sleuths, and Brandy hopes to get her personal life back on track by persuading Camilla to sign the divorce papers. But when Brandy visits Camilla’s shop, she finds the woman beaten to death with a cast-iron corn husker. After Brandy’s arrest, Tony must recuse himself from the investigation. Live-wire Vivian sets out to clear her daughter’s name with her usual gusto and risible results. Whenever Vivian gets too lively and threatens to spin out of control, Brandy is able to take charge of the narrative and slow things down, allowing readers to catch their breath. Some may find this series too manic and far-fetched for their taste. Allan is the pseudonym of Barbara and Max Allan Collins. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.

March 1, 2017
A mother-daughter sleuthing team has to solve an uncomfortably personal murder.Despite its name, the Mississippi River town of Serenity, Iowa, where Vivian Borne and her daughter, Brandy, run an antiques shop and host the reality TV show Antiques Sleuths, has been plagued by an unusual number of crimes. But all has been going well lately--even Brandy's Shih Tzu, Sushi, is no longer blind--until Camilla, the estranged wife of Brandy's beau, Police Chief Anthony Cassato, moves to town. Suddenly Camilla, who's opened her own antiques store, starts outbidding the pair at auctions and making a general nuisance of herself, especially to Tony, who mistakenly thought she'd signed divorce papers. Brandy runs into Camilla at another antiques store and auction house and sees her change prices on a picture frame but decides to say nothing, especially after Camilla apologizes to her for being vindictive. Too late: when Camilla is found bludgeoned to death with a corn husker she'd grossly overpaid for, Brandy, whose prints are found on the murder weapon, is thrown into jail. Her conflict with the victim--even the moment when Brandy shoves Camilla--has all been caught on tape for Antiques Sleuths. Now Vivian, an actress and diva who relies on happy pills to keep her most outrageous impulses in check, has the job of clearing Brandy. Since Tony must return to New Jersey to see his daughter, Vivian tracks down clues, tapping into every source she has in the town, a hotbed of gossip at the best of times. She learns that the picture frame Camilla bought has gone missing and wonders if it might turn out to be the reason for murder. The amusingly ditzy duo, endlessly involved in dubious detection (Antiques Fate, 2016, etc.), manages to solve yet another case despite their generally clueless air.

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April 15, 2017
Former theater diva, the irrepressible Vivian Borne and her sensible daughter, Brandy, owners of the antique and collectible store, Trash 'n' Treasures, and stars of the reality TV show Antiques Sleuths, are wrapping up the first season of the show as Brandy deals with relationship issues. After serving her estranged husband (and Brandy's current boyfriend), Anthony Cassato, chief of police, with divorce papers, Camilla Cassato has changed her mind and now wants Anthony back. She has come to Serenity, Iowa, opened her own antique store, and is taking great pleasure in outbidding Brandy for items on camera, while the show is being filmed. When Camilla is found murdered, Brandy is the chief suspect, and Vivian leaps in to protect her daughter. A conversational writing style, with both Vivian and Brandy sharing the narration, adds to the appeal here, along with the well-drawn mother-daughter relationship and the many details of the antique business. This humorous series will appeal to readers who enjoy Jane K. Cleland's Josie Prescott mysteries, also set in the antique world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)