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slferg's review against another edition
4.0
Abigail Wiggins Timberlake, a North Carolina native who owns an antiques store in Charlotte called the Den of Antiquities, is having a busy day when she sees a woman in her shop with an ugly, dirty gray vase. The second time she sees the woman is when she comes through her shop window a bit later. She is deliberately hit by a vehicle and knocked through the display glass and, to Abigail's chagrin, breaks a Louis IV chair. But no one can find the vase. It isn't in the street or on the sidewalk or anywhere else. The next day Rob and Bob, two neighboring antique dealers, come by her shop and one of them finds the vase in a little nook in the shop. She is going to break it when they stop her with the news it is a Ming Dynasty vase. They carefully wash the soot and grime off of it and show her the delicate glazes that mark it's dynasty. She decides to tell the police later and keeps it in her shop for the day. When she and her boyfriend Greg Washburn, a Charlotte Police Homicide Investigator, go to her shop to collect the vase that night it is gone. Greg is furious that she didn't turn it directly over to them.
Then she begins to get strange phone calls. One tells her he wants his vase back. Then she gets a call at night, asking where the vase is in her shop - the caller says, "it's not here". After she hangs up, she wonders what he means "here" and calls Greg. They go to her shop and find it has been ransacked and her phone stolen...
Then Frank McBride, another dealer, asks her to go to an open house at Jerry and Bea's who have furnished a house in Tudor style. The big draw is the Countess of Worchester. Who wears a dress identical to Abigail's and her mother's. After the butler spills canapes down Abigail's cleavage they become fast friends. While talking after leaving, the Countess drops dead at Abigail's feet - shot through the head. Greg is concerned the shot was meant for Abigail. Then a few days later, Frank McBride is found dead in his shop. He has been shot with the same weapon as the Countess. Abigail is sure it is somehow connected with the Ming vase and something at Roselawn Plantation which the Preservation Society is opening to the public. They have agreed to let Abigail value the antiques - and she discovers that about half of them are VERY good reproductions. All she finds out about June Troyan by talking to the others (June is the woman knocked through her shop window and was a docent at Roselawn), is that June pretty much kept to herself, exploring the house and not saying much to anyone else. She is more convinced than ever that it has something to do with Roselawn, but exactly how she hasn't a clue, until she decides to befriend one of the board members...and is rudely thrust into the mystery.
The book is written in a lively way, with much humor. Abigail's mother is a very proper southern lady who always wears her string of pearls. Abigail contends her mother would have gotten a black belt in karate except the instructor did not thing, pearls, even properly strung were appropriate. Also, her mother investigated to see if she would qualify for the DAR, but didn't follow through. Abigail claims her mother wouldn't join a club that would have her for a member. She is forever trying to join and when asked, refuses. A fun book to read....
Then she begins to get strange phone calls. One tells her he wants his vase back. Then she gets a call at night, asking where the vase is in her shop - the caller says, "it's not here". After she hangs up, she wonders what he means "here" and calls Greg. They go to her shop and find it has been ransacked and her phone stolen...
Then Frank McBride, another dealer, asks her to go to an open house at Jerry and Bea's who have furnished a house in Tudor style. The big draw is the Countess of Worchester. Who wears a dress identical to Abigail's and her mother's. After the butler spills canapes down Abigail's cleavage they become fast friends. While talking after leaving, the Countess drops dead at Abigail's feet - shot through the head. Greg is concerned the shot was meant for Abigail. Then a few days later, Frank McBride is found dead in his shop. He has been shot with the same weapon as the Countess. Abigail is sure it is somehow connected with the Ming vase and something at Roselawn Plantation which the Preservation Society is opening to the public. They have agreed to let Abigail value the antiques - and she discovers that about half of them are VERY good reproductions. All she finds out about June Troyan by talking to the others (June is the woman knocked through her shop window and was a docent at Roselawn), is that June pretty much kept to herself, exploring the house and not saying much to anyone else. She is more convinced than ever that it has something to do with Roselawn, but exactly how she hasn't a clue, until she decides to befriend one of the board members...and is rudely thrust into the mystery.
The book is written in a lively way, with much humor. Abigail's mother is a very proper southern lady who always wears her string of pearls. Abigail contends her mother would have gotten a black belt in karate except the instructor did not thing, pearls, even properly strung were appropriate. Also, her mother investigated to see if she would qualify for the DAR, but didn't follow through. Abigail claims her mother wouldn't join a club that would have her for a member. She is forever trying to join and when asked, refuses. A fun book to read....
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