(2009) Killer Keepsakes
When her assistant at Prescott’s Antiques and Appraisals fails to return to work after a vacation, Josie Prescott is worried. She sets off to Gretchen Brock’s condo to see if she’s OK. But when the property manager opens the door, she and Josie find a man’s body – he’s been shot; Gretchen is nowhere to be found. The dead man is wearing a very distinctive belt buckle and Josie tells police she may be able to help them find out where it came from – and that might help identify the victim.
Privately, Josie is worried about Gretchen and conjures up a few scenarios that would fit the facts as she knows them – and none of them are good. Our heroine feels certain that Gretchen couldn’t have committed murder, but has to admit to herself and police that she doesn’t know a lot about Gretchen, who revealed little about herself or her life before she arrived in New Hampshire. Could something in her past have drawn her into a dangerous situation? Josie and her team employ the same skills they use determining the provenance of antiques to help police find a murderer – and their co-worker.
Killer Keepsakes is the fourth Josie Prescott mystery – a series that just gets better with age. It’s one of the few amateur-sleuth series that has a fairly realistic relationship between said sleuth and police. Josie doesn’t believe cops are idiots and shares everything she learns with them – and pronto. Josie is one of the most likable protagonists in crime fiction: a good businesswoman, who keeps her cool, has a healthy ego and a romance with a man who is her equal -- and she isn’t constantly mooning over or fretting about him.
I really appreciate the quality the plotting (well-paced) and writing (flawless) in this series. I get impatient with mysteries in which the first crime happens much more than 50 pages into the story. Give me an author who introduces the first murder before page 10 and I’m happy. In Killer Keepsakes, the first body is discovered at the end of very short Chapter 1!
By Diana. First published in the Cozy Library April 6, 2009.
(2008) Antiques to Die For
First-person narrator Josie Prescott is busy with her booming antiques business and enjoying her romantic relationship with Ty Alverez, police chief in Rocky Point, New Hampshire, when a friend dies under suspicious circumstances. Added to Josie’s grief over her friend’s death is her concern for the dead woman’s 12-year-old sister Paige, whom Rosalie Chafee was raising after the death of their parents.
Our heroine, who lost her mother when she was about Paige’s age and her father to murder years later, identifies with the young girl and Josie wants to do anything she can to help. Paige asks Josie to help make sure that none of Rosalie’s belongings fall into the hands of her cousin Rodney, from whom the sisters were estranged. Paige also mentions a secret “treasure” her sister told her about … but the young girl doesn’t know exactly what it is. Could the secret of the treasure’s and its location be related to a poly-alphabetic substitution cipher developed by Thomas Jefferson aka the artichokes matrix?
At the time of her death, Rosalie was working on a PhD thesis at nearby Hitchens College, in addition to ghostwriting the autobiography of the egotistical CEO of Heyer’s Modular Furniture. Josie wonders whether her friend’s death might have been related to academic jealousy or to something Rosalie discovered in her research into the CEO’s life … or to a thwarted suitor. Being in the midst of a project for Heyer’s gives Josie entrée into that company, so she decides to do a little snooping. Soon it appears that her sleuthing may be putting Josie herself into danger.
Jane K. Cleland juggles one main plot and several sub-plots quite well, even making an occasional excursion into Josie’s past – and all without losing readers in the process. The quality of Ms. Cleland’s writing and storytelling reminds me of Susan Wittig Albert and Katherine Hall Page, two of my all-time favorite mystery authors. In this third Josie Prescott mystery, neither the author nor her protagonist show any signs of slowing down or losing their edge. Because it is so well done (and has been nominated for so many awards), I’m making the assumption this series will go on for a very long time. I, for one, hope to see a “prequel,” – at least one book that explores Josie’s past. She’s teased readers with enough tantalizing clues about her backstory to make such an entry inevitable. The sooner the better!
By Diana. First published in Mystery News, June-July 2008 Issue. (July 1, 2008)
(2007) Deadly Appraisal
When Josie Prescott agrees to host the Portsmouth (NH) Women’s Guild’s annual Black & Gold Gala at her antique business, she’s doing it to give back to the community. Instead, she winds up in the middle of a murder investigation when one of the organizers is poisoned by cyanide-spiked wine. At first, Josie is on the suspect list, but soon police are forced to consider that Josie might have been the intended victim.
Meanwhile, Josie throws herself – as usual – into the everyday activities at Prescott’s Antiques and Appraisals. To keep her company, Josie has a small staff of eccentric -- often mysterious – misfits and a new landlady, Zoe Dwyer, a single mom with two young children. But Josie’s missing her beau Ty Alverez, the police chief in Rocky Point, who’s on the other side of the continent tending to his elderly, ailing aunt. Josie is forced to rely on her lawyer, Max Bixby, to advise her on how to handle the aggressive Detective Rowcliff, who’s heading the homicide investigation. Rowcliff’s antagonistic approach gets under Josie’s skin -- he can get her dander up with nary a word.
Jane K. Cleland’s first mystery, Consigned to Death, was recently nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel in 2006 -- I reviewed it and gave it 4½ quills (out of five). Deadly Appraisal is a worthy successor to that first effort. Although I thought the plot of Deadly Appraisal dragged at a few points, the book has so many other good qualities that I found myself not caring much about the pacing. With great dialogue and description, a strong but insecure heroine and enough inside info about Josie’s business to satisfy an Antiques Roadshow fan – what’s not to like?
The bottom line for me is whether I want to read more mysteries by an author. My response is “yes.” I hope the author continues writing this series long enough that readers will have the opportunity to learn the backstories of her intriguing secondary characters.
By Diana. First published in Mystery News, April-May 2007 issue.
(2006) Consigned to Death (Nominated for Agatha Award for Best First Novel)
Josie Prescott fled New York for Portsmouth NH after testifying in a price-fixing trial involving an auction house she worked for, finding she was persona non grata after blowing the whistle on the i
llegal goings on. Now she’s running her own auction business and trying to put the trial, her old boyfriend and the death of her father behind her. The last thing she needs is another trial. But it looks as if that’s where she’s headed when the police chief of nearby Rocky Point puts her at the top of his suspect list when one of Josie’s clients is murdered.
Despite the situation she’s in, Josie is finding Chief Ty Alverez pretty doggoned attractive. But since the two of them are always in the presence of Josie’s lawyer, it’s tough for love to bloom. Plus, having a client she really liked murdered stirs up all the feelings Josie had surrounding the loss of her much-loved father a few years before. Despite that and a busy work schedule, Josie decides she has to do a little snooping into the murder just so she can clear her own name and get on with business.
I can’t recall a first mystery I enjoyed as much as I did Consigned to Death. The martini-swilling Josie (she’ll drink one with a burger!) is a great cozy heroine … strong, straightforward and seemingly sophisticated yet vulnerable in some ways. The author has also populated her story with enough terrific secondary characters to keep the series interesting for a good long time. Antique lovers and fans of the Keno brothers and Antiques Road Show will find the book very appealing.
Some authors who are educating their readers in addition to entertaining them can get bogged down with the educating and forget the story. Jane K. Cleland doesn’t fall into that trap, walking that fine line very nicely. The plot moves along at a steady pace to a very realistic conclusion, which is somewhat rare in cozies. I also think Josie’s feelings about her dad’s death will ring true to anyone who’s lost their father. (When Josie refers to her murdered client as “Mr. Grant” I was getting images of Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner … a not unhappy memory.)
By Diana. First published in Mystery News, April-May 2006 edition.
