The Glow of Death

September 26, 2016
Well-defined characters compensate for the overly complicated plot of Cleland’s 11th mystery featuring Rocky Point, N.H., antique dealer Josie Prescott (after 2015’s Ornaments of Death). At the waterfront mansion of businessman Edwin Towson, Josie informs Edwin and his wife, Ava, that the Tiffany lamp he asked her to appraise is genuine and might fetch as much as $1.5 million at auction. Things get complex quickly when there’s a murder at the Towson mansion, though the woman lying dead on the kitchen floor is the not the person Josie met earlier. More shocks follow when it appears that someone also impersonated Edwin and details about the Towsons’ troubled
marriage begin to emerge. Josie, angry about being conned, digs deep for clues with the aid of Rocky Point’s police chief Ellis Hunter and reporter Wes Smith. Suspects include the real Edwin Towson and Ava’s sister. Cozy fans won’t mind that Josie’s efforts lead to the unmasking of some unlikely scammers. Agent: Cristina Concepcion, Don Congdon Associates.

September 15, 2016
An antiques appraiser get scammed, gets mad, and gets even.Josie Prescott, who owns a well-regarded antiques auction house in the little New Hampshire beach town of Rocky Point, is delighted when wealthy Edwin and Ava Towson ask her to appraise what may be a valuable Tiffany lamp. She's even happier to authenticate the lamp and get a chance to sell it for a price that could be well over $1 million. Those plans come to a screeching halt when Ava is found murdered. The problem is that neither the man who called Josie nor the woman who showed her the lamp is actually a Towson. The real Ava's sister, Jean Cooper, claims that Edwin killed Ava, who's the real corpse. Edwin asks Josie to pick up the lamp, but someone scares her off by shooting at her. When her associate does retrieve the prize, it's no more than a respectable fake that's clearly been substituted for a Tiffany lamp worth a fortune, and Josie and her friends (Ornaments of Death, 2015, etc.) can't prove they didn't make the switch. Josie's inevitably involved in the investigation as a witness even though she has trouble describing the fake Ava and never saw the fake Edwin. Furious about being used in the scam, she resolves to find the truth and uses all her professional contacts to track down the valuable but not original lamp used as a substitute. Once she learns that Ava was pregnant, and not by her husband, Josie wonders if Ava and Jean have been scamming her for getaway money, but she soon learns the case is even more complicated than she imagined. A cozy replete with antiques lore, likable characters, and a more complex mystery than usual.

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October 15, 2016
Josie Prescott, of Prescott's Antiques & Auctions, is thrilled when Edwin Towson calls to ask her to authenticate a rare Tiffany lamp. The lamp turns out to be genuine and worth a fortune. However, Josie is stunned when she learns Ava Towson has been murdered, and it turns out that Ava is not the woman Josie met when she picked up the lamp. Furious at being connedthe couple who impersonated the Towsons appear to have stolen the authentic lamp and left a reproduction in its placeJosie sets out to find the imposters and identify Ava's murderer. Josie is a hardworking small-business woman who often helps the local police department, sharing antiques-related information. Small-town, seacoast Rocky Point, New Hampshire, is lovingly described, and details about Tiffany lamps and other antiques and collectibles are woven throughout this satisfying cozy, which will appeal to readers of Barbara Allan's Brandy Borne cozies and Lea Wait's Maggie Summer mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)