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KILLER KEEPSAKES by Jane K. Cleland

KILLER KEEPSAKES

by Jane K. Cleland

Pub Date: April 14th, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36944-6
Publisher: Minotaur

A valuable antique provides a clue to a murder.

Transplanted from New York to New Hampshire, Josie Prescott, assisted by reliable Gretchen Brock, has developed a successful antiques business. When a body is found in Gretchen’s apartment and Gretchen is nowhere to be found, Josie (Antiques to Die For, 2008, etc.) goes into sleuthing mode. Eager to help the police and prove Gretchen innocent, she quickly realizes that although she knows little about Gretchen, she’s certain she did not murder the unidentified man. But who is Gretchen Brock really? Gretchen’s closest friends—Mandy, who has an ex-con boyfriend, and Lina—claim to know nothing about her past or her disappearance. A new mystery arises when a rare vase missing from a stand in Gretchen’s house turns up in the store’s safe. Josie’s attempts to trace the vase reveal that Gretchen vanished after her husband brutally murdered the motherly Denver antiques dealer she was working for—a clue that helps the police identify the murdered man as Gretchen’s husband. When Josie surmises that Lina has been concealing her, Gretchen surrenders to the police but maintains her innocence. Could the killer be Mandy’s boyfriend, who’s arrested for selling antiques he stole from demolished houses, or a mysterious stranger who visits the store looking for Gretchen?

Another agreeable cozy studded with appraisals and antiques lore.