Antiques Frame

by Barbara Allan Narrated by Amy McFadden

Overview

With their reality TV series Antiques Sleuths, Brandy Borne and her quaintly kooky mother, Vivian, have a real hit on their hands. But when another hit enters the picture, Brandy's implicated for the crime. With Brandy now wearing basic jailhouse orange, Vivian must largely investigate alone, sorting through a rogue's gallery of suspects that includes a too-friendly farmer's wife, a ratings-happy TV producer, a questionable husband-and-wife auctioneer team, and even the chief of police himself! Aided only by the loyal shih tzu Sushi and the police dog Rocky, the wacky mother-and-daughter sleuthing team must learn the killer's identity before Brandy becomes the subject of a murder masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

03/20/2017
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. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

2017-02-21
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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175703055
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	04/25/2017
Series:	Trash 'N' Treasure Mysteries
Edition description:	Unabridged

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